Oracle for Windows 3.x, 95 and 98 FAQ

What happened to my ORACLE.INI file?
Normally your WIN.INI file will contain an Oracle section indicating where your ORACLE.INI file can be found. Eg:
[Oracle]
ORA_CONFIG=c:\windows\oracle.ini
Oracle's Windows95 and NT compliant (32-bit) products do not use the ORACLE.INI file but store parameters in the Windows Registry. You can edit the Registry by running the REGEDIT.EXE program (REGEDT32.EXE on NT).
To copy settings to a different machine, export the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE key using REGEDIT (say to oracle.reg), copy this file to the new machine and import.
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How can I identify myself to my DBA?
Edit your ORACLE.INI file in your C:\WINDOWS directory (or edit the Windows Registry entries if you don't have one) and add:
USERNAME=Frank
TERMINAL=AccPc01
OS_USER=Frank
You DBA can now verify which users are connected to his database via
SELECT USERNAME, TERMINAL, STATUS FROM SYS.V_$SESSION;
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I'm using Windows95, what TCP/IP driver should I install for SQL*Net?
I want to install the Oracle SQL*Net TCP/IP Adaptor on a Windows95 PC but there is no matching TCP driver, in the "TCP vendor list", for the native Windows95 TCP driver. What is the best choice or action to take?
Simply select Windows Sockets (very first line) - it does work.
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How can I automatically start Oracle on Windows?
First solution:
Set the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\DATABASE_STARTUP" key in the Windows95 Registry to value "AUTO". To disable automatic startup set the value to NOAUTO.
Second solution:
Put an icon for Server Manager in your startup group. The command line for Server Manager must include a SQL script that contains the same commands you use to startup Oracle. Eg:
SVRMGRxx COMMAND="@startup.sql"
All of this assumes that you have the Oracle services set to startup automatically upon system startup. This is the default upon installation. Your startup script should look like this:
SPOOL STARTUP.LOG
CONNECT INTERNAL
STARTUP
SPOOL OFF
EXIT
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How does one connect to Personal Oracle?

Personal Oracle7:
The connect string is 2: where is the instance ID. The default SID is ORCL. (no period)
Personal Oracle8:
For Personal Oracle8, you must use the Bequeth Protocol Adaptor. The connect string is beq-local. The Oracle Net8 Easy Config utility must be run in order to have the TNSNAME.ORA file updated with the appropriate information. Start Net8 Easy Config and create a new service using the Bequeath (Local Database) protocol.
In order to connect with Oracle7 tools to the Oracle8 database, you need to define a TCP/IP listener in the LISTENER.ORA file and start it from a DOS window (lsnrctl80 start).
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How can one change the default database on Windows?
If your client machine runs Windows95 or NT, set the LOCAL (or REMOTE) variable to the value of the database alias in the Registry (under the key \LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE).
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Commonly used scripts and sample files

 SET_SID.REG - Set ORACLE_SID in Windows Registry
 CREPO8DB.BAT - Batch file needed to create a new/extra Personal Oracle8 DB
 CREPO8DB.SQL - Create a new/extra Personal Oracle8 DB
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Where can I get more info about Windows?

 Microsoft's Windows Home Page
 WinMag's Windows FAQ
 Windows 3.x FAQ
 WinFiles.com
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