Hello,
I am currently using this configuration for my application which runs on a x86 architecture: Windows 7 Professional 64 bit version and a Oracle 11g 64 bit database (plus the accordingly client). Because my application run under 32 bit I felt compelled to install a 32 bit version of oracle client. On this matter I noticed that Oracle offers multiple client versions (e.g. a 32-bit Oracle Data Access Components (ODAC) with Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio - which from what I see is the full client, an instant client (ODT with ODAC1120320_32bit) and basic featured client (ODAC112040Xcopy_32bit)*). Firstly I installed the basic client because it seemed the way to go at the beginning, and indeed the connection between my application and oracle database server was created successfully, until I noticed that for some of my functionality I need the Microsoft OLE Db Provider for Oracle (which from what I see is included in the basic client mentioned before, and above all this, the driver should be installed executing the following command: "install.bat all c:\oracle odac" - from the readme.htm document found in the ODAC112040Xcopy_32bit zip). For my surprise the OLE DB driver doesn't work at all, and in order to fix my issue, after some research, I installed the instant/full client (I saw that they both work as well). If you are kind, I would like to ask you some of my questions related to this topic:
1. Can you please tell me why the OLE DB driver from the basic client doesn't work after client installation, and what actions should I take in order to have that driver working (I mean if I need to install some software or to configure the existing one).
2. What is really the difference between the mentioned clients (*).
3. Can I installed only the OLE DB driver for Oracle without installing one of the clients.
** As I mentioned before, and I want to emphasize that, is that I need a 32 bit version of OLE DB driver.
Thanks for your time.