I'm VERY sorry if this has been asked and answered but I'm having a bit of trouble navigating this space and it seems that all the people that have asked the same question have only 'Archived' discussions.
I feel a bit foolish asking as the instructions couldn't be simpler but there's nothing for troubleshooting or follow up if the instructions don't produce the expected outcome so here I am.
I've downloaded the instant client and unzipped to %AppData%\myapp\instantclient. I've updated the Path variable with all sorts of variations on %AppData%\myapp\instantclient including the full URI on our network just to be safe. I've added the TNS_ADMIN variable with the same path as that's where I put my tnsnames.ora file (hopefully going to use EZConnect once this is working). Each time I make a change I have run the odbc_install.exe as administrator being sure to uninstall each before change as well... After a restart, I diligently go to "Data Sources (ODBC)" and try to [Add] a new data source only to find that the expected "Oracle for instantclient" is not there.
I've tried downloading both 64bit and 32bit as well as all versions from 10.2 up through 12.1.0.1.0 and all available combinations of these variables.
I've searched just about everywhere and read all the very nice comments that have been left for users to follow the simple instructions but I've yet to find a place that actually helps anyone to get this working. SQLPlus works fine as does SQLDeveloper but nothing for the ODBC Administrator.
Please help!
Thanks.