Re: Mysql Administrator error "Could not find settings"
> Does the GUI look for my.ini 'explicit'? Is it mandatory to have?
The order in which MySQL/MySQL Administrator searches for a configuration file is first a my.ini file, if not found then a my.cnf file. The folders searched are, in order: Windows, the C:\ root folder and then the MySQL installation folder.
I think under XAMPP you should find a my.cnf file in the C:\xampp\mysql\bin folder (assuming you have XAMPP on C:). So in the first instance you could try moving the my.cnf from there to the Windows folder.
If that doesn't work you should consider running MySQL as a service using some of the information contained in the rest of this thread to ensure that the configuation file location details are correctly recorded in the Registry.
Although XAMPP defaults to running/stopping MySQL with its mysql_start.bat/mysql_shutdown.bat files, you can discard this method and install it as Service instead if you wish. It should not have any impact on the remainder of the XAMPP package such as Apache or PHP.