I am running 8.4 on a Windows Vista system. The software was installed using the auto-install process. PostgreSQL starts successfully as a service when the system boots. The running postgres* processes can be verified via Task Manager. I can run psql from the command prompt. I have the PGDATA env variable set to the folder where the PostgreSQL data sits. Running the pg_ctl status command from the command prompt returns "pg_ctl: no server running". Ideas why pg_ctl doesn't know about the running services?