Setting up root password

[Jeff Bollettino]

I've just done a fresh install of XAMPP with Apache and MySQL. The directions I'm following (from a book) say to immediately set a root password, but the directions are not working for me. Perhaps someone here can give me a clue card?

In the command window I first navigate to the mysql prompt with the following:

C:\xampp\mysql\bin\mysql

Then the instructions were to type in the following, with my own password for 'thepassword'

SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@' localhost' = PASSWORD ('thepassword');

However this returns the following:

Access denied for user ''@'localhost' to database 'mysql'

Any guidance on why this isn't working?