You need to remember there are two parts to mysql, the server and the client(s). Mysqld is the server, mysql is the command line client. The traffic light is courtesy of another program called winmysqladmin and is optional.

If you start mysqld from a command prompt, it will not return to the command prompt. Perhaps that is what you mean by "Windows's prompt crash..". This is quite correct, the server is now running and that is detected by winmysqladmin, so the green light comes on.

The best way to run mysqld is as a Windows service. The manual covers this but you can run it from a command prompt or from Windows Startup if you want.

Once the server is running you can start up a client to talk to it.

You can start the command line client from a command prompt by entering

C:\mysql\bin\mysql -u<username> -h<host> -p <database>

The default user name is root, the default host is localhost and there is no default for the database.

For example

C:\mysql\bin\mysql -uroot -p test

Logs you in as root, will prompt for root's password (which is empty by default after installation) and will connect you to the test database. I am assuming you have installed mysql to c:\mysql, if not adjust the path. Just entering

C:\mysql\bin\mysql

Will log you into the server (if any) on your local machine as root (providing root has no password) but will not connect you to any database. This is what happens if you just double click mysql.exe from Explorer.

You say you saw the one line help prompt, so you got that far.

There is no SQL command "mysqlshow" so that won't work and many other commands won't work unless you are connected to a database.

You can connect to a database by entering

USE test;

and pressing enter. There is a database called "test" created during installation. If you enter

SHOW databases;

You will see there is also a database called "mysql" where the server keeps its administrative information.

Hope this gets you going but it is all in the manual in section 2.2.

John Bonnett