How to install Oracle ODBC driver in Windows 10

Oracle Database is one of the foremost DBMS (Database Management Systems) for Windows. However, Windows 10 doesn’t include any built-in Oracle ODBC connection tool.

So, you’ll need to install an Oracle ODBC driver to connect to an Oracle database with an ODBC-compliant application.

You have to do more than download and install an ODBC package to connect to an Oracle database with an application.

On top of that, you’ll also need to add new environment variables and set up a DSN for the driver before you can connect with the Oracle database.

How can I install an Oracle ODBC driver in Windows 10?

1. Download and extract the Oracle packages 

1. First, open the Oracle Instant Client page in your browser.
   
2. Next, click the Instant Client for Microsoft Windows 32 or 64-bit link (or an alternative one that matches your PC’s platform).
3. Click the Basic package download link.
4. Scroll down and click the SDK package hyperlink to download that archive.
5. In addition, click the download link for the ODBC package.
6. Open the File Explorer window by clicking the folder taskbar button for it.
7. Click the C: root drive in File Explorer.
8. Then right-click a space within the C: drive and select New > Folder.
   
9. Enter Oracle as the new folder name. Then you should have a new folder with this path: C:\Oracle
10. Move all three of the downloaded Oracle ZIP archives into the Oracle folder. You can do that by selecting the ZIP files, clicking the Move to button, and selecting Choose location within File Explorer.
11. Next, extract all three of the ZIP archives into the Oracle folder. To extract a ZIP, select it and click the Extract all button on File Explorer’s Compressed Folder Tools tab.
    
12. Then you can click the Browse button in the Extract Compressed window to select the Oracle folder. Click the Extract button.
13. Open the extracted instantclient-basic-windows.x64-19.11.0.0.0dbru folder.
14. Move the instantclient_19_11 subfolder from there into the Oracle folder.
15. Then erase the now empty instantclient-basic-windows.x64-19.11.0.0.0dbru folder that previously included the instantclient_19_11 subfolder by right-clicking it and selecting Delete. Thereafter, you’ll have a single instantclient_19_11 folder within the Oracle directory.

The ODBC and basic ZIP archives must be unzipped to exactly the same folder. Select to extract the ODBC ZIP to the path of your unzipped Basic package.

Delete instantclient_19_11 at the end of the path in the Extract Compressed window so that an additional subfolder isn’t included. 

The SDK package is a non-essential optional one. However, it’s recommended you download that package too.

The SDK ZIP archive should also be extracted to the same instantclient_19_11 folder that includes the Basic and ODBC package files. 

In case that did not help, you can give a try to Outbyte Driver Updater which has a big database of drivers and might have the right ones for Oracle, besides that, updating your drivers is a common good practice for maintaining a functional PC.

2. Add an Oracle Client directory environment variable

1. Press the Windows and S keys simultaneously to open a search box.
2. Type the keyword system environment variables with the search text box.
3. Click Edit the system environment variables to open the window in the screenshot directly below.
   
4. Press the Environment Variables button.
   
5. Click the New button for system variables.
6. Next, input OCI_LIB32 within the Variable name box.
7. Input your Oracle folder path in the Variable value box. If you followed the guidelines above, that folder path would be this: C:\Oracle\instantclient_19_11.
   
8. Next, Double-click Path in system variables to open the window in the snapshot directly below.
   
9. Click the New button, and enter the same folder path you input within the Variable value box.
10. Press the OK button.

NOTE

To get the list of TNS services when establishing ODBC connections, you’ll also need to set up a TNS_ADMIN system environment variable that points to the directory that includes the tnsnames.ora file.

3. Install your ODBC Oracle client package

To install the ODBC client, open the instantclient_19_11 folder you extracted the ODBC package to in File Explorer. Then right-click odbc_install.exe and select the Run as administrator option.

Note that there isn’t any kind of GUI installation wizard for that file. So, that’s all you need to do here.

4. Set up the DSN for Oracle driver

1. Bring up the search tool within Windows.
2. Enter ODBC Data Sources in the search box.
3. Click ODBC Data Sources to open the window in the screenshot directly below.
   
4. Next, click the Add button on the User DSN (or System) tab to open the Create New Data Source window.
   
5. Select your Oracle ODBC driver, and press the Finish button.
6. Fill out the required details on the ODBC configuration window.
7. Click Test Connection to check your Oracle Database Server connection.
8. Press the OK button to exit.

5. Install missing Visual C++ libraries

You can’t set up data sources for an Oracle driver with the ODBC Data Source Administration if a required Visual C++ package for it is not installed on your PC.

If an error message pops up when your try to set up an Oracle driver data source, you might be missing a required Visual C++ package.

You’ll need to have Visual Studio 17 installed for the current Oracle 19 client. You can download Visual Studio 2017, and older redistributable packages, via the C++ downloads page.

Then click the VC EXE file you downloaded to install the Visual Studio package. So, that’s how you can install the Oracle ODBC driver on Windows 10.

When you’ve installed the current Oracle ODBC driver, you can connect to Oracle Database DBMS versions from 11.2 up to 19.1 with the 19c client.

Moreover, if you need to fix Windows 10 ODBC issues, just check out our dedicated article. As for your opinion, the comments area is waiting for you.