Using 32-bit ODBC drivers on Win7 64-bit

As we slowly migrate away from Windows XP to Windows 7 at work, the world seems to take great pleasure by presenting weird and wonderful issues for me to fix.

The latest one was getting 32-bit ODBC drivers to work on a Win7 64-bit PC.

I tried installing both the 64-bit and 32-bit ODBC drivers for MySQL (http://www.mysql.com/downloads/connector/odbc/), but neither seemed to work with the 32-bit application (DocuWare – our Document Management System).

I was following my detailed installation notes for DocuWare – which hadn’t failed me yet – so it was really frustrating to fall at the final hurdle.

It turns out there are two ODBC administration consoles, one for 32-bit and the other for 64-bit. This seems straight forward, but both are named odbcad32.exe and live in strange places.

The standard console can be found under Administration Tools > Data Sources (ODBC). This is the 64-bit version. To open the 32-bit ODBC console, you need to go to C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe. I would’ve put the 32-bit version next to the 64-bit version in Administration Tools, but I guess that was too simple!

Using the proper 32-bit console, I was able to add a MySQL System DSN using the 32-bit MySQL ODBC driver, and peace was restored to the world.

Comments

  1. Steve Baker says

    Funny I had a similar issue just the other day.

    Got any tips for adding a VFP (Visual FoxPro) DSN?

    I already downloaded everything Microsoft recommended that is normally included in MDAC 2.8 and somehow managed to install it, but still the VFP option does not appear in ODBC.

    Some searching about yielded an article saying that MS want the world off FoxPro and on .NET. But that seems elitist and very, well, Microsoft.

    If you have any thoughts I’d be glad to hear them. Thought I’d ask up here in case others have seen this and would benefit from any wisdom…

    • It’s probably no longer of interest to you, but maybe others. When I open the 32bit-ODBC manager as stated in the article above (the one from syswow64), there is a VFP driver and two other DBF-drivers (one “dBase” and one “Access”) without installing anything on Win7_64. Are you sure you used the 32bit-ODBC admin? Because in the default ODBC-admin (which is the 64bit version) from the start menu, those drivers won’t show up.

  2. Adam Rush says

    Sorry Steve, I haven’t had the pleasure of working with VFP yet, but I always enjoy the challenge. I’ve read a few articles on using it before, but that was a while ago.

    If I find anything on my travels, I’ll let you know…but don’t hold your breath 🙂

  3. Hello Steve,

    I found your page when searching for a solution for exactly the same issue, but with no luck so far. After some hours of confusion, I realized there was a 32bit version of the ODBC manager, I installed the 32bit version of the mysql-connector, created a DSN with tests OK, but VFP 9 crashes big time every time I try to close the connection with sqldisconnect()… any ideas?

    • Just in case anybody’s interested: I think I found the problem. The database was still empty, because I was just setting up a test environment, and VFP doesn’t seem to like that. Once I added an empty test table, it seems to be working fine.

    • Hi Werner,

      I’m glad my post pointed you in the right direction, but unfortunately I still have no experience with VFP. I spend most of my time with MSSQL these days.

      Sounds like you sorted it yourself anyway. Good stuff!

      Adam

  4. Steve Baker says

    Hi Werner

    I have, since I originally commented, been able to install the VFP DSN successfully thanks to exactly the same thing you just said – using the 32-bit ODBC admin. Unfortunately I forgot to share what I’d found, for which I apologise.

    Thank you very much for posting your findings and I hope others get to where they need to be sooner as a result of what we’ve been through!

    Best regards

    Steve

  5. Jose Fernandez says

    Thank Adam. Fue para mi una gran ayuda tu aporte. It was a great help to me your input. Jose, Barranquilla – Colombia