replacing Access/ Approach etc

Hi, a friend of mine on Windows, is attempting to convert to using
PostgreSQL (and of course, I'm helping him).

The installation gave an option to run as an application, rather than as
a service.

Turns out, my friends login account has Admin privs, and postgres.exe
will not run in an account with admin privs.

He wants to keep the "lightweight feel" and frankly I'd like that on my
Ubuntu box as well - to just fire up a local instance of postgresql
pointing at a particular "data" directory, and listing (on loopback/
localhost only) on an instance-specific port (point the exe at a local
.conf file).

Why is this not so intuitive/ easy to set up?

Is it useful goal to consider running multiple instances of pg, ala
microsoft access, lotus approach, etc?

Install as service has a "feel" of heavywieght. I (and my friend) want
to have per-project local data directories, with all db meta data etc
all local to that directory and project. This way, a simple backup of
the entire project can be made (pg data, documentation, web site files,
etc, etc). Does this make sense?

Is there a way to achieve this, on windows?

Is there a way to achieve this, on gnu/linux?

Thanks in advance
Zenaan

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