Get PDO running

[leaning]

Hello!

I am trying to get PDO running, but am confused about some stuff:
1) As I understand it, mySQL is deprecated, and I should be using mySQLi or PDO instead. But with the newest XAMPP setup, I have this in PHPinfo:
PDO: PDO support: enabled
PDO drivers: mysql, sqlite
pdo_mysql: PDO Driver for MySQL: enabled: Client API version mysqlnd 5.0.12-dev - 20150407 - $Id: f59eb767fe17a6679589b5c076d9fa88d3d4eac0 $
pdo_sqlite: PDO Driver for SQLite 3.x: enabled: SQLite Library: 3.8.10.2

So, is this XAMPP set up to go with PDO and mySQLi?? Or do I have to edit a file (php.ini), or download and install something, etc.?
(I'm hoping that this as-is, as installed is good-to-go, but I also think that even though it's the newest XAMPP version, it installs giving you a deprecated setup.I'm still learning, so I don't know. I appreciate the help.)

2) And then I am trying to setup the PHP to use PDO. Again, I am getting that you have to tweak/change/etc. to get XAMPP to accept the PDO codes. Something about XAMPPP doesn't like the password attribute....Again, nothing definitive.

So, if anyone has a good tutorial or step-by-step procedure for getting PDO to work with XAMPP, that would be great! (Of course, if it is already set up the best way when it was installed and I just don't know what I am doing, I'd appreciate some pointers on how to work with it.)

Thanks for all your help and info!

Regards,
leaning