RE: plan for running postmaster directly as NT service

> d) How can we insure that the ipc-daemon service starts before the
> postgres/postmaster service? I believe that NT has some facility that
> allows one service to request start-up of another service, but I have
> no idea how to make that happen.

You can use Service Dependencies for this. In you call to CreateService()
for the service, specify a value for the "lpDependencies" parameter. This
parameter holds a pointer to a double null-terminated array of
null-separated names of services that this service depends on. The Service
Control Manager will make sure these services start first, so the
dependencies are satisfied.
So just add the ipc-daemon service there, and the rest should happen
automatically.
See:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/psdk/winbase/serv
ices_3p9h.htm

//Magnus