32 bit ODBC in the 64-bit Operating System

Clarion 7, Clarion.Net

Note: This blog was written by Robert Ricketts, who is a Senior Support Representative at SoftVelocity. If you have any questions, you can post them here or even email us at support AT softvelocity DOT com

Now, on to the article! 🙂

There has been quite a bit of confusion about using the 32 ODBC Administrator and 32 Bit ODBC drivers in 64 bit Operating Systems so I thought I would put together some information to help when using 32 bit ODBC drivers, such as the TopSpeed ODBC driver.

For 64 bit Operating Systems, there is a 64 bit and a 32 bit ODBC Source
Administrator.  Both actually have the same name (odbcad32.exe).

You can launch the Admin applet from the command line (or a Shortcut) so you get the 32-bit version of the ODBC configuration tool. The command line is as follows:

%WINDIR%SysWOW64odbcad32.exe

Microsoft stores the 32 bit odbcad32.exe in the syswow64 directory and the 64 bit odbcad32.exe in the system32 directory.

N.B. If you just run odbcad32.exe, Windows will actually run the 64-bit version because the default system path has system32 ahead of syswow64.

From: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942976

System DSNs are stored in the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareODBCODBC.INI

Registry redirection is enabled for this registry subkey. Therefore, system
DSNs for 32-bit drivers and for 64-bit drivers are separated. The 64-bit ODBC Administrator tool does not display the system DSNs that are created by the 32-bit ODBC Administrator tool or that use 32-bit drivers and visa versa.

User DSNs are stored in the following registry subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareODBCODBC.INI

Registry redirection is not enabled for this registry subkey. Therefore, both
ODBC Administrator tools display all user DSNs.

Regarding the DotNet Framework

In order to use the TPS ODBC driver from .NET you will need to use the .NET Framework Provider for ODBC.

If you see no reference to the .Net Framework Provider for ODBC, this is
available as a free download from:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads

Search for “ODBC .Net Data Provider” to download and install the .Net Framework Provider for ODBC.