Re: running PostGres without installing it

i want to distribute a copy of PostGres to my clients.
they really dont know anything about installing
programs or
configurating remote RDBMS sql-servers,
so i dont want to give them the
"official-PostGres-installer.exe "
but my own installer.exe (win32)

I would love to know this too.  Is there a way to just copy the PostgreSQL files to the hard drive without the installer, load up the database and start and stop it as an application rather than a service?  A silent installer may solve the problem but what if you have 2 applications that both have installers and want to install PostgreSQL?  The silent installer would need to be able to detect that it is already installed (which I think it already does) and then skip the PostgreSQL install without bugging the user (not sure it would do that).

For years I have struggled with desktop applications and data access/storage.  Databases are very powerful tools but, other than MS Access, I have not seen any that are easily distributable bundled with a desktop application.  Not having a personal database to bundle with my applications has proven to be a "one hand tied behind my back" situation.

Any ideas you guys have would be deeply appreciated.