Can't create new server instance

[Kevin Pearson]

Let me start by stating that I'm a beginner to database admin, and installation, etc.. I have mysql & workbench installed. After I first installed mysql the first thing I thought I had to do was create a new server instance (from workbench) and I got to 'Testing the database connection' which was created successfully, but in the next step (Set Windows configuration parameters for this machine' I get 'Could not set up connection: COuld not connect to target machine.' The box for 'Select the service to manage from the list below' is blank, but I browsed to my configuration file and hit next anyway. I get 'Cannot Advance. Could not connect to target machine. No such interface supported.'.
After that I tried a new connection and I was able to create a connection to a database as well as added a existing database that I exported out of MS Access 2010. I've even set up a connection string in a C# project and tested the connection and read data from table.
So my question is why can't I create a new instance and do I even need one if I can create a connection to database??