Re: Error starting service on Win2k

>> You need two accounts. One administrator account that starts the
>> installer (this could be "Administrator" or cours e-=20
>definitly no need
>> to create a special user for this). Another account which is=20
>> used to run
>> the eventual installed postgres. This is the account that you=20
>> specify on
>> the service account screen in the installer. This account=20
>> MUST NOT be an
>> administrator.
>
>OK. It turns out that the problem there was that the installer=20
>(postgresql-8.0-beta2-dev3.msi) actually created a user=20
>account which WAS a member of "Power Users", because my "Power=20
>Users" group included the group "NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated=20
>Users" (according to the MS website [1], this is the default=20
>configuration for Windows XP and Windows 2k Professional,=20
>though NOT for Win2k Server or Win2003 Server). This setting=20
>means that ANY new local account is AUTOMATICALLY a power=20
>user. When I realised this I removed the "NT=20
>AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users" from the "Power Users" local=20
>group, and the installer ran perfectly.

That is an interesting note. I've never seen "Power Users" contain
Authenticated Users on any system I've installed, but the page certainly
claims it.=20
However, it makes no claim about Windows XP that I can see. Only about
Windows 2000, and it shows the difference for the server platform.


>It would be better if the installer would detect this=20
>situation, though, because users installing PostgreSQL on=20
>WinXP or Win2k Professional with the default security setup=20
>will otherwise find that the installer will create a user=20
>account which then doesn't work, which is not a good start :-)=20

Yes, if this ia  default in a bunch of installations, we certainly
should. I've added a tracker to the installer to check for htis, and
we'll try toget it in there before release. I will also add it to the
installer/windows FAQ.


//Magnus