Oracle BAM

Installing Oracle Database XE 11g on Windows 7 64-bit machine

luminite110 Comments

I often wonder why some things can be made so difficult for users. People consistently tell me that has long as Oracle is involved, installation is going to be a pain. But some things never change.

Anyway, I figured that most Windows 7 64bit machine users would face this error when they attempt to install the Oracle Database XE 11g.

“The installer is unable to instantiate the file C:\Users\ … … \KEY_XE.reg. This file does not appear to exist.” Fear not my fellow homo sapiens. Just follow these steps and rejoice.

1. With the error message box still open, click the Windows start button and type “regedit” in the search box. Press enter. The registry editor will open.

2. On the left column, expand the folders as follows: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT -> Installer -> Products -> 266B7A….. -> SourceList-> Media

3. Look for ‘1’ under Name on the right column. Under ‘Data’ on the same row, the value should be ‘DISK 1’ or something similar. Right click on that row and click on ‘Modify’.

4. A window named ‘Edit String’ will open and type in the address indicated in the error window you had from the Oracle installer, ending just before ‘KEY_XE.reg’. It should end with a row of numbers/letters then ‘}\”.

5. Click OK and close the Registry Editor.

6. Return to the Oracle Installer and click OK on the error message box.

7. It will take a while, but eventually, the installer will indicate that installation is complete.

8. To check if everything’s good, click on the windows start button -> All programs -> Oracle Database 11g Express Edition -> Get started.

9. A web browser will appear and the Oracle Database Get Started page will load.

Good luck!

p/s: If like me, you closed the error message box before editing the Registry Editor, you can uninstall Oracle through the Windows Control Panel -> uninstall programs and start the installation all over. It worked for me.

110 thoughts on “Installing Oracle Database XE 11g on Windows 7 64-bit machine”

    • I had this problem, do you have %HTTPPORT% in your URL. If so, you need to replace this with 8080.

      I then created an alternative URL shortcut and copied it into the server folder and then redirected the Get Started shortcut on my desktop to point to the new shortcut.

      This worked a treat for me. Couldn’t get it to work any other way.

      Reply

  5. There is no 266b7a…. under Installer.
    under installer… there is only Assemblies, Components,Features, patches, Products, Upgrade Codes, and Win32Assemblies
    I have Windows 7 Home Premium. 64 bit OS. I cannot get this to work

    Reply

    • ps: I DID find that 266b7a….. Under PRODUCTS which is under installer. But Same thing happened as happened to NICK.

      Reply

  6. Hi all,

    I’m sorry to hear you guys r facing this problem.

    For a start, maybe you could check if your oracle service (windows button -> type services and search, click services) started successfully. The other thing to check is the firewall rules.

    Let me know how it goes and I’ll try my best to help!

    Reply

    • Hi Malcom

      would you please paste the “value data” that is entered in regedit during edit string for value name : 1 for me. i am not sure yet on how to enter KEY_XE.reg along with key.

      Reply

  9. I just enter URL=http://127.0.0.1:8080/apex/f?p=4950 after seeing OracleServiceXE and OracleXETNSlistener both started, it now works

    Reply

  10. It is still not working for me. I tried all above mentioned step as well as disabled firewall and unpluged network. Tried everything several time but still It is not working for me, when tried sqlplus it givems me error”Error 6 initializing SQL*Plus
    SP2-0667: Message file sp1.msb not found
    SP2-0750: You may need to set ORACLE_HOME to your Oracle software directory”

    Please help!

    Reply

  13. Hi luminite, i tried typing the full path . still doesn’t work … should we type the values in brackets only ??

    Reply

    • 4. A window named ‘Edit String’ will open and type in the address indicated in the error window you had from the Oracle installer, ending just before ‘KEY_XE.reg’. It should end with a row of numbers/letters then ‘}\”.

      The “address” mentioned above is “C:\xxxxx\xxxxx{xxxx1234}” or just “{xxxxx1234}”

      Reply

  20. Thanks, this worked perfectly for me.

    I would add that it’s easier to navigate to the the path indicated, then click in the directory name field (top left) and copy the address, rather than type it. I overwrote the contents of the regedit field (wasn’t sure if I should pre/app-end).

    Reply

  21. would one of you please paste down for me how the “value data” looks like
    for “value name:1” in the rededit during edit string.

    Reply

  22. Thanks for your help man !!!! It really helped me a lot !!!

    Greetings from Guatemala !!!

    Reply

  23. Hello i am kavin, its my first time to commenting anywhere, when i
    read this article i thought i could also create comment due to this brilliant paragraph.

    Reply

  24. I have an issue were I can access and see the data, but I can’t update, change or add data in the database…any ideas?

    Reply

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    Reply

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    I’ve loaded your blog in 3 different web browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot faster then most.
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    Reply

  43. Hi luminite,
    Thanks a lot for this 🙂

    If it is not too much to ask, I wanted to understand how did you come to explore this solution ? I mean, just not able to understand link between the error message and modifying a supposedly random reg key to fix it..

    Reply

    • Hey Ketan,

      Haha my answer is simple: Google is my friend :p

      Well, I actually combed the internet quite a bit to find a solution. I tried several, but finally only this method worked for me. So I just posted it in case others need it as well!

      Reply

  50. It worked, to a point. I had to copy the file OracleMTSRecoveryService.reg and rename it to: KEY_XE.reg. I pasted the file into the folder described in the error message. Once I did that, along with the regedit fix, the install went really well. (The time it takes to complete the install after the fix is a bit un-nerving, but keep you eye on the hard drive access LED. If it’s flashing or on solid, the install is still going!)

    Thanks so much for the fix!

    Reply

  54. Hi Luminite, almost 1.5 years later and still no X64 version? Poor Oracle… For learning purposes / training I will soon download the database and APEX. From reading the previous comments I’m pretty confident that your solution will do the trick. So thanks in advance… 🙂

    Reply

  56. for all people whose listner don’t start. please create a environment variable ORACLE_HOME=’C:\oraclexe\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\server’. my listener started after setting up this environment variable in Win 7 64 bit. Just right click on my_computer> select properties> advance system setting> environment variable.

    Reply

  58. finally success in installing oracle 11g xe on win 7 64 bit. No need to setting up ORACLE_HOME as I mentioned above as this is not needed at all (don’t even solved the error I was getting). The really issue I had was that I had installed oracle11g under my laptop login. I was always in the impression that since I am the single user of laptop hence I am the administrator. This is wrong. I later on read on internet that windows 7 do have a separate user ‘Administrator’ which is diabled by default untill unless you enable it. I enabled the Administrator user and then logged off. At login now I saw two userid. One is my own and another ‘Administrator’ user. Administrator user don’t have any password and I just clicked it and I was in. I went back to my own login, uninstalled oracle11g completly, logged out, relogin to Administrator useris and installed oracle11g and Wow! it worked like charm without any extra setup.

    thanks everyone and have a good luck

    Reply

  63. Thanks Buddy for this post, this made things simpler to me. Knowledge Sharing always make things move forward without giving loosing time on existing solutions and problems.
    Keep up the good work.

    Reply

  65. I got this error message while installing oracle xe 11g2 on windows 8 64 bit machine. I just clicked on OK. It completed the installation successfully. I was able to open the getting started page and I can work on application express.

    So i was not really required to make the changes in regedit. Is this ok ?

    Reply

  68. Hi. Followed everything and when i tried to click GET STARTED, error is produced that says : it cant find the url. Make sure that you typed the name correctly, and then try again. Need help. Thanks 😀

    Reply

  69. the fourth step
    4. A window named ‘Edit String’ will open and type in the address indicated in the error window you had from the Oracle installer, ending just before ‘KEY_XE.reg’. It should end with a row of numbers/letters then ‘}\”.

    does it mean, replace the “DISK1;1” value with path ?? or add path after “DISK1;1” value??

    Reply

  74. You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic to
    be really something that I think I would never
    understand. It seems too complicated and very broad for me.

    I’m looking forward for your next post, I will try to get the hang of it!

    Reply

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    Reply

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