I was trying to set up my Sparkfun ESP8266 Thing starter kit, but it appears as though my computer is not recognizing the device. Following the ESP8266 Thing Hookup Guide, I am unable to select the FTDI port number. When I plug in Thing with the USB cable that came with the kit, I do not hear anything like I normally would if I connected a mouse. Additionally, when I look at the Device Manger on my computer, I do not see any device pop up in the Ports (COM & LPT) or USB controllers section. However, my Thing is lighting up, so I am wondering if the cable is not working properly or if there is something wrong with my device.
When I tried to run the Blink test program, I am getting the following error: serial.serialutil.SerialException: could not open port ‘COM5’: PermissionError(13, ‘Access is denied.’, None, 5)
I am new to this and would like to get past this first step so I can start building things, so I appreciate your help! 
Some cables are only functioning as charging cables and have no data function. In that case you dont see your device as a COM port. Try using another cable. That fixed the issue for me.
The USB port on the Thing is for power only, it won’t show up as a device on your computer. The FTDI should show up as a COM port though provided you have the drivers installed.
Thanks. I have tried installing the necessary drivers (https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/ho … i-drivers/) but no matter what I do or how many computers I try, the Arduino IDE doesn’t recognize any COM port. I have tried both mac and PC computers, as well as several different USB cables, but I am still stuck. Are there other drivers I need to install?
NO… as TS-Chris pointed out, the USB connector on the ESP8266 thing is ONLY providing power. That is it !! What you need is another FTDI board USB to Serial (e.g. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14050) for the data connection