PostgreSQL/pgAdminIII – Send Command Line Commands via UI

Since you're on Windows and are probably starting PostgreSQL as a Windows service, you'll need to edit postgresql.conf (inside your data directory) to set the new port there, then restart the postgresql service using the Services control panel or (as an Administrator) the net service command.

You can use a programmatic text editing tool to change postgresql.conf if you need to automate this. On a Linux/unix box you'd use a tool like sed or awk, but on Windows I imagine you'll be using VBS, powershell, or an add-on tool like Perl.

You'll need to change the connection settings in tools like PgAdmin-III to use the new port.

If you were starting PostgreSQL manually using pg_ctl you could set the PGPORT environment variable or pass a config option on the command line. This won't work when you're launching it as a Windows service.

I found a temporary solution to my problem. I edited the pg_hba.conf of the 9.3 server to say trust in the first two active lines. And after restarting (sudo service postgresql restart) I can connect to the server again using pgadmin. The downside is that the server might now not be password protected (I will open a separate question if I encounter any problems with that).

    # Database administrative login by Unix domain socket
    local   all             postgres                                trust

    # TYPE  DATABASE        USER            ADDRESS                 METHOD

    # "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
    local   all             all                                     trust
    # IPv4 local connections:
    host    all             all             127.0.0.1/32            md5
    # IPv6 local connections:
    host    all             all             ::1/128                 md5
    # Allow replication connections from localhost, by a user with the
    # replication privilege.
    #local   replication     postgres                                peer
    #host    replication     postgres        127.0.0.1/32            md5
    #host    replication     postgres        ::1/128                 md5