I assume you are using the 64 bit version of Oracle to install.
I assume you have Windows 7 x64 - Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate edition
In the case of unusual errors it would not be impossible for something silly like the language pack in use on Windows to be the cause. Try starting with a new Windows install that has not been customized or has had any other Oracle products installed or removed
Check the install logs. With all the versions and folder name changes I am not 100% sure where but you should look in the c:/Windows/oracle or in the install folder if located on hard disk
I had no problems with a VirtualBox 4.14 Windows 8 preview VM and x64 Oracle 11gR2.
My VM uses 40 GB Hard Disk. While installing it downloaded .Net Framework 3.51
I started with a fresh Windows 8 VM in VirtualBox 4.14 and installed guest additions and run Windows update once. Afterwards I installed Oracle and got the items below on my Start page.
I find the databasefiles of my new database Bk_W8 in C:\app\berndk\oradata\Bk_W8. That is the location I would use for additional tablespaces.
The rest can be done by scripts which can be executed by sqlplus from this machine or from another client and is not Windows 8 specific.
Edit:
By right-clicking on the item on the start page, via advanced | open file location I found the path to the start menu:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Oracle - OraDb11g_home1\Konfigurations- und Migrations-Tools
I guess you will find
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
the other is specific for a German Oracle installation.
To get access to the hidden C:\ProgramData folder see this link showing how to access folder options in Windows 8
Final hint: My VM currently uses 23 GB for the virtual hard disk.
OK I'm going to retry this with the Oracle Database Express Edition 11g Release 2 (September 2011). But that takes some time.
Installation done:
The is the Web interface of Oracle 11g XE in Windows 8
For the question of creating addition databaseinstances:
from this question on SO we learn, that it is not possible.
Creating tablespaces and users can be done using sqlplus. Which I found at C:\oraclexe\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\server\bin\sqlplus.exe.
Now going to remove that Virtual machine. I think there are better ways to learn Oracle.
Best Answer
In a command line, run:
If you see a capital R in the output, then the read-only attribute is set for that folder (which is the default setting for the Documents folder).
Either remove the read-only attribute from the folder (I do not know what this will mess up in Windows), or specify a different folder for diagnostic dest. For the latter, on this screen, go to
All Initialization Parameters..., and set the value ofdiagnostic_destto a directory that has no read-only attribute set.