Changing default user for PostgreSQL on Windows 10?

I just installed PostgreSQL 13 on Windows 10. In the command prompt I did:

C:\Users\Max>cd ../postgres

I then tried to do the createdb command and got this error message:

createdb: error: could not connect to database template1: FATAL: password authentication failed for user "Max"

After some research I know that if I don’t specify a database user with -U username option, it takes the OS username.

When I cd into the postgres user, why does it still use the user "Max"? Is there a way I can change it to authenticate as postgres when I'm in C:\Users\Max so I don't have to specify the username every time?

1 Answer

Nevermind I found the answer.

• Right click on Windows icon and click “System”

• Scroll down to “Advanced System Settings”

• Click Environment Variables

• In “System variables”, click “New”:

  Variable Name: PGUSER

  Variable Value: postgres