Installing the Software

The ODBC Driver for Oracle is a component of the Microsoft Data Access Components. It accompanies other ODBC components, such as the ODBC Data Source Administrator, and should already be installed. The driver also can be found under "Drivers and Other Downloads" on the Microsoft Product Support Services Online Web site at www.microsoft.com.

Network software must be installed according to its own documentation. The ODBC Driver for Oracle requires no special installation considerations as long as the network software is supported. For more information about network software requirements, see System Requirements and the introduction of this guide.

Oracle software must be installed according to its own documentation. The ODBC Driver for Oracle generally requires no special installation considerations as long as the driver supports the version. However, to keep products compatible, install the ODBC Driver for Oracle last to ensure you have the latest version of the driver. Oracle maintains a public FTP site where it posts, among other things, patches to the Oracle server products and the client component that ships with the server products. These patches are required for the proper functioning of several Microsoft products and technologies. For more information about this site, see Oracle Software Patches.

Caution Installing Oracle software over the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) may overwrite current versions of MDAC. If problems arise using ODBC components, reinstall MDAC.