MySQL is an open source relational database management system which is quite popular for light-weight web applications. Over the last few years, the product has also added some features which allow it to be used for larger business tools. This paper will provide an overview of this software on Windows. MySQL does not have as many features as PostgreSQL, and while many of the more advanced features are not as mature. However one would expect it to perform substantially better than PostgreSQL on Windows because of its thread-based architecture (PostgreSQL uses a process-based architecture instead).

Note for Vista Users
The MySQL installation requires that User Account Control (UAC) is disabled. If you do not do this, the installation will fail when the system tries to start the service, even if the user allows the change. To disable UAC, go to the Control Panel:

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