Windows – How to Remove ODBC Data Source if Driver is Removed

odbcwindows 7

On my Windows 7 machine, I created an ODBC data source to an Oracle database via the ODBC Data Source Administrator (c:\windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe). Sometime later, I had to uninstall and reinstall Oracle Client, which resulted in a different Oracle home. So the existing ODBC data sources no longer worked. However, if I try to remove the data source, I get the following error messages:

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Microsoft ODBC Administrator
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The setup routines for the Oracle in ORA112_HOME ODBC driver could not be found.  Please   reinstall the driver.
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OK   
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Then 

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Driver's ConfigDSN, ConfigDriver, or ConfigTranslator failed
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Errors Found:

Component not found in the registry
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OK   
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How do I remove these ODBC data source entries?

Best Answer

They are defined in the registry under \ODBC\ODBC.INI\ in various places depending on if the definition is

System User:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ODBC\ODBC.INI

32-bit:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ODBC\ODBC.INI

64-bit:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI

To delete a data source, you have to delete the data source key under ODBC.INI and the entry under ODBC.INI\ODBC Data Sources linking your data source to the driver.

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