Starting postgres server automatically on Windows (XP)

Hello,

I have configured my system to start the postgres server automatically
upon system startup.

In practice, however, the service often fails to start when the machine
is restarted. (It does start sometimes!) The problem seems to be that
the service "forgets" the password to the non-admin logon account. To
rectify the problem, I go to the Windows Computer Management dialog and
open the properties applet of the PostgresSQL Database Server 8.3
service. On the "Log On" tab, I re-enter and confirm the password for
this account. Then I go back to the "General" tab and press the "Start"
button. This method always works. But it will not be an acceptable
solution for potential users down the road.

I am hoping there is a way to improve the reliability of the automatic
startup.

The Windows registry lists values for the following keys under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PostgreSQL\Services\pgsql-8.3

Data Directory F:\Program
Files\PostgreSQL\8.3\data\

Database Superuser postgres

Display Name PostgreSQL Database Server 8.3

Encoding Win1252

Locale English_United States

Port 0x00001538

Product Code
{B823632F-3B72-4514-8861-B961CE263224}

Service Account Red000037\pgssvc

Pg_ctl status reports the following once the server is running:

% pg_ctl status

pg_ctl: server is running (PID: 3532)

F:/Program Files/PostgreSQL/8.3/bin/postgres.exe "-D" "F:/Program
Files/PostgreSQL/8.3/data"

I also see that pg_ctl allows us to register and unregister the service.
When registering, an option for a password is provided but this is not
shown in the registry. Also, I see other things in the registry that do
not seem to be settable from pg_ctl.

Would unregistering and re-registering the service using the -P option
help at all here? Is there some other configuration setting or registry
setting that could be used to make the startup 100% reliable?

Your help is much appreciated.

Thanks,
Gail