I am quite new to phpmyadmin configuration. I had project where utf8 encoding is needed. What i'm trying to do is to change the variables text/char all into utf8. I changed, yes at that moment the values changed into values I wanted. But then when I terminate Xampp and reenters phpmyadmin page or even refreshing the page, all the values restored to default (original values). My phpmyadmin had default user as root and hadn't been set a password yet. There is also no logout button in phpmyadmin landing page. I had difficult time even to set the server connection collation (hangs indefinitely and never seems can be updated).

phpmyadmin version:4.1.6

mysql:5.5.36 (latest version)

I doubt this could be due to malformed installation, because same things happened in my other computer too (exactly the same versions).

what could be wrong?

thanks.