my.cnf should be owned by root and have permission setting of 755<br>
same applies for all other config files in your xampp/lampp installation<br>
<br>
You can avoid this problem by unarchiving your xampp download in a way that preserves permission settings and all. I usually do it by opening it in ark then dragging the folder to /opt, as opposed to the extract here option<br>


<br>
If its a fresh xampp install it might be easier for you to backup your 
htdocs folder, delete the installation and reinstall (unarchive) as mentioned above