Windows installation notes

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Not sure if this is the right place, but win32-hackers seems to be dead.

I recently had a chance to install PostgreSQL on Windows, and wanted to
share my comments on the experience in the hope of making things better.
Overall I was very impressed - this is a very nice installer. I am not a
Windows user: the last time I used it for anything serious was Win98, so
forgive any unwise assumptions. This was using WinXP on a modern laptop.
My comments are in rough chronological order only, so serious concerns are
mixed with pithy observations.

My first big problem was getting the thing to run. I downloaded the
installer (and had problems doing that, but that's not something
relevant to this thread). Once the zip file was downloaded I double
clicked on it and Windows opened a folder. I read the README.TXT, then
double clicked on the .msi file. It asked for a language, but when
I made my choice, it insisted the file could not be found. After much
digging, I realized that Windows had not actually unzipped the file
completely, or at least not made it available in a way the installer
could find. I had to right click on the zip file and choose "extract",
go to the folder created, and then the msi file worked. At the least,
something should go in the README about this. Ideally, the installer should
figure out what is happenning too and either find a way to read the file,
or give a better message.

The first text screen that popped up after that was a little small
considering all of the text inside of it - can it be made larger, or at least
made resizeable? It was good to see the FAQ mentioned there, but it should
show up earlier, e.g. the README as well. Also, I could not click on the URL,
nor could I copy and paste it, despite it being "blue colored" as a link.

The URL was:
http://pginstaller.projects.postgresql.org/faq/FAQ_windows.html

Especially in light of the fact that I had to manually copy this into a
browser window, a shorter url would be nice, even if it just redirects
to the above. Perhaps something like:

http://postgresql.org/windows.html

The opening file has two sets of "legal notes" one at the top, and a
larger one at the bottom which is confusing. I'd recommend putting it
all at the bottom, as nobody reads them anyway. :)

Moving on to the section where we choose the options:

"Development files" was too sparse, it should tell what it is for - would
people think they need this if they want to develop an application? I presume
it is for developing PostgreSQL itself, however.

The "Data" directory is not very intuitive, as the only other place where a
directory should be specified, it should stand out more.

If you don't give a password, the randomly generated one is ghastly. Not
sure if this is a Windows thing or what, but it was definitely a strong
password. Impossible to remember, and very difficult to write down and enter.

More explanations would help throughout the process, such as explaining exactly
what "Initialize database cluster" means, and what a port number is.

Towards the end, I got a data directory error, and the message that I must
initialize it manually by using initdb.exe. This was because I was using a
FAT32 partition. Should this not have come up much earlier? For example, when
I chose the partition?

There was only one procedural language available, and no explanation why the
others were greyed out or how to get them.

My next problem was directory permissions. After I got through the whole
process, initdb failed due to the postgres user not having permissions on a
directory. Again, it would be most helpful if this could be checked earlier.
The rollback bit was very nice, although it simply exits at that point. It
would be better if it would go back to where you are choosing the data directory.

It would also be nice if, upon re-running the installer after an error, the
settings that you had chosen before were kept.

I never did figure out how to use the directories I wanted, not being familiar
enough with Windows to check and set all the required permissions. I finally
used the default paths and it worked. It would be nice for the FAW to perhaps
provide some troubleshooting examples for this problem.

The main installation page is pretty well done. There is a typo towards the
end: "you acn" instead of "you can", The screenshots also need to be updated
to match what is seen on the 8.1 installer. For one thing, that cool elephant
logo is not there. I liked the logo. :)

The subscribe to the mailing list link was a nice touch. Nicer still would
be a page that answers "now what?"

For the conf files in the menus: is there a way to make the default editor
wordpad instead of notepad?

The psql program opens in a small window - can it be made larger?

The psql history is not saved between sessions.

For pgadmin, one hint said "is the 8th July" instead of "8th of July"

- --
Greg Sabino Mullane greg(at)turnstep(dot)com
PGP Key: 0x14964AC8 200511261732
http://biglumber.com/x/web?pk=2529DF6AB8F79407E94445B4BC9B906714964AC8
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