Changing writes permission on "settings.php" in order to finish installation

I need help changing write permissions in order to finish the installation of 6.3 on Vista. I'm not sure what I'm doing. I've done a search and looked at the handbook and video and INSTALL.txt but haven't found the procedure that fits my situation. I'm using a WAMP to make my computer a development server. To view files, I point my browser to http://localhost/filename/.

I've right-clicked on default/settings.php and chosen Properties. On the General tab, I deselected "read-only". I went to the Security tab and my groups are: Authenticated Users, SYSTEM, Administrators (owner-PC\Administrators), and Users (Owner-PC\Users). I'm the only person that uses this computer.

Do I add a new user for the Drupal installer? Is there a specific name I should call it?

Also,
(1) the instructions on this page: http://drupal.org/server-permissions are confusing. Do I copy the content of sites/default/default.settings.php and put them in a file called sites/default/settings.php OR do I create an empty file named sites/default/settings.php. I copied the contents into settings.php. I read them but don't understand them.

(2) while searching for the answer to my problem, I've seen the instruction to change the permissions back for security reasons after installation is complete. Would this apply to my set-up since I'm not on a "live" server?

Thanks.