installation on Windows Although a complete PostgreSQL installation for Windows can only be built using MinGW or Cygwin, the C client library (libpq) and the interactive terminal (psql) can be compiled using other Windows tool sets. Makefiles are included in the source distribution for Microsoft Visual C++ and Borland C++. It should be possible to compile the libraries manually for other configurations. Using MinGW or Cygwin is preferred. If using one of those tool sets, see . To build everything that you can on Windows using Microsoft Visual C++, change into the src directory and type the command nmake /f win32.mak This assumes that you have Visual C++ in your path. To build everything using using Borland C++, change into the src directory and type the command make -DCFG=Release /f bcc32.mak The following files will be built: interfaces\libpq\Release\libpq.dll The dynamically linkable frontend library interfaces\libpq\Release\libpqdll.lib Import library to link your programs to libpq.dll interfaces\libpq\Release\libpq.lib Static library version of the frontend library bin\psql\Release\psql.exe The PostgreSQL interactive terminal The only file that really needs to be installed is the libpq.dll library. This file should in most cases be placed in the WINNT\SYSTEM32 directory (or in WINDOWS\SYSTEM on a Windows 95/98/ME system). If this file is installed using a setup program, it should be installed with version checking using the VERSIONINFO resource included in the file, to ensure that a newer version of the library is not overwritten. If you plan to do development using libpq on this machine, you will have to add the src\include and src\interfaces\libpq subdirectories of the source tree to the include path in your compiler's settings. To use the library, you must add the libpqdll.lib file to your project. (In Visual C++, just right-click on the project and choose to add it.) psql is compiled as a console application. As the Windows console windows use a different encoding than the rest of the system, you must take special care when using 8-bit characters within psql. If psql detects a problematic console code page, it will warn you at startup. To change the console code page, two things are necessary: Set the code page by entering cmd.exe /c chcp 1252. (1252 is a code page that is appropriate for German; replace it with your value.) If you are using Cygwin, you can put this command in /etc/profile. Set the console font to Lucida Console, because the raster font does not work with the ANSI code page.