Got it working by appending: rpc-endpoint = 127.0.0.1:8090 in the config file. However, after unlocking, the commands don't seem to be working with steemd.exe running.
The help() command threw this:

help()
4 parse_error_exception: Parse Error
Unexpected char '40' in ""
{"c":40,"s":""}
th_a  json_relaxed.hpp:739 variant_from_stream

{"str":"help() "}
th_a  json.cpp:494 variants_from_string