ODBC 32bits for Windows 64bits

Windows-On-Windows 64-bit (WOW64) enables you to run 32bits applications in 64bits OS.

You will see there is another powershell, another registry, another ODBC tool, another Oracle client.


%SYSTEMROOT%\syswow64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe

First, we run powershell(x86)


Get-itemproperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\*| Select-Object ORACLE_HOME,ORACLE_HOME_NAME

ORACLE_HOME ORACLE_HOME_NAME
----------- ----------------
C:\oracle\product\11.2.0\client_32 client32bit_11203

Only the Oracle 32bit client is displayed

cmd /c "%SYSTEMROOT%\syswow64\odbcconf.exe /a {configdsn ""Oracle in client32bit_11203"" ""DSN=helloworld32|SERVER=DB01""}"


We registered ODBC with a wow64 configurator (odbcconf) or assistant (odbcad32).

$conn = New-Object Data.Odbc.OdbcConnection
$conn.ConnectionString= "dsn=helloworld32;uid=scott;pwd=tiger;"
$conn.open()
(new-Object Data.Odbc.OdbcCommand("select 'Hello World' from dual",$conn)).ExecuteScalar()
$conn.close()


For the 64 bits version, it boils down to the same as odbc 32 bit on 32 bit os


%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe

$conn = New-Object Data.Odbc.OdbcConnection
$conn.ConnectionString= "dsn=helloworld64;uid=scott;pwd=tiger;"
$conn.open()
(new-Object Data.Odbc.OdbcCommand("select 'Hello World' from dual",$conn)).ExecuteScalar()
$conn.close()


Do not get confused by Windows32 and WOW64.

Windows32 is the default windows system directory with a bad name from upon a time where 32 meant something very big (compared to 16bit software); and WOW64 which is a special directory to run 32bits windows application on a 64bits os.

Note: odbcconf will be removed in future release, prefer Add-OdbcDsn