Installing Drupal in Windows using XAMP

Installation can be done following combined instructions in the following two pages
http://drupal.org/documentation/install/windows
http://drupal.org/node/307956

or simply follow the steps which I used (following the above two pages)

Install & Setup XAMPP

1.  Download the latest version of XAMPP and install it on your C:\ (or main) drive.
2. It works better when you install directly to C:\, rather than the Program Files directory.
3.  For XAMPP to function properly, make sure you have Skype turned off, or alternatively in Skype go to Tools > Options > Advanced > Connections > Uncheck "Use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections".
4. Start Apache (Web server) and MySQL (database server) services from the XAMPP control panel.
5. Test your XAMPP installation by opening the web browser and typing http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1 in the address box.
6. Run XAMPP services (Apache or Drupal. Once the XAMPP page appears, go to the language section on the lefthand side under Sprachen and select English.
7. Go to Tools on the lefthand side and click on phpMyAdmin. Create a new database called Drupal: under MySQL Connection Collation, select utf8 unicode. Under Create New Database, type in drupal.
8. Once you get the message “database drupal has been created”, close phpMyAdmin.
9. Set your password for MySQL for the “root” user. Open your web browser, go to http://localhost/security. Scroll down and select http://localhost/security/xamppsecurity.php. Once the security consoles opens, type in your password and click the Password Changing button.
10. Restart MySQL in the control panel by clicking the Stop butting next to MySQL, then the Start button again.

Download & Install Drupal

1. Download the latest recommended version of Drupal. Save the download in C:\xampp\htdocs.
2. When you unzip the download of Drupal, it will probably create a directory called "drupal-6.17" (or whatever the latest version of Drupal is). Possibly rename this directory to "drupal", so you can access your local Drupal install at http://localhost/drupal.
3. In a web browser, go to http://localhost/phpmyadmin. If you set a password, log in with "root" and the password you chose. 
4. Copy & paste the file "default.settings.php" in "c:\xampp\htdocs\drupal\sites\default", under the drupal directory, and name it "settings.php".
5. You should now have two identical files in your "c:\xampp\htdocs\drupal\sites\default" folder -- one called "settings.php" and one called "default.settings.php".
6. Browse to http://localhost/drupal/install.php and follow the instructions it gives. For the database information, use what you set up in step 7 of Install & Setup XAMPP
7. Follow steps in this page (http://drupal.org/documentation/install/run-script) 
8. Never forget to set the settings.php as read-only (right click and click on properties, enable read only button)
9. If you make manual changes to the settings.php file later, be sure to protect it again after making your modifications.
   Failure to remove write permissions to that file is a security risk.