A Possible configuration problem?

Hey guys, I have been using IIS 5 and MySQL 4 with phpMyAdmin 2.5.4 on my local machine to test my design. Lately I have been encountering major problems. Basically when I go to a table and edit a field using phpMyAdmin IIS crashes (does things that has a Send - Don’t Send send alerts?). I’m really bugged. It didn’t do something like this before. The error is so annoying cause I have to restart IIS again. Do any of you encountered problems like this? Also do any of you know where I can place a password for MySQL? I also receive this notice from phpMyAdmin:

Your configuration file contains settings (root with no password) that correspond to the default MySQL privileged account. Your MySQL server is running with this default, is open to intrusion, and you really should fix this security hole.

I looked at the MySQLAdmin.exe and I could plainly see a user and password on the mysql.ini file! Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.