How to install Oracle 10g on windows vista or windows 7

Step 01: Download the appropriate Oracle software version.
The first step is to download oracle software for windows vista or windows 7. So determine your hardware and operating system in order to determine whether you will download oracle 32 bit or 64 bit. You can follow the post http://arjudba.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-identify-os-or-oracle-64-bit-or.html in order to determine which version of oracle you will download.

You can get the oracle software from two ways.
Either download from
OTN (technet.oracle.com)
or from
edelivery (edelivery.oracle.com)

I am showing the downloads way from OTN (technet.oracle.com).
You can directly go to page http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/database10g/downloads/index.html in order to download Oracle 10g.

If you want to download 64 bit oracle for your windows vista or windows 7 then go to http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/10204-winx64-vista-win2k8-082253.html.

If you want to download 64 bit oracle for your windows vista or windows 7 then go to http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/10203vista-087538.html to download.

In summary,
For 32bit Windows: Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.3/10.2.0.4) for Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 2008

For 64bit Windows: Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.4) for Microsoft Windows Vista x64 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x64

With 32 bit downloads you can install on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7.
With 64 but downloads you can install on Windows Vista x64, Windows Server 2008 x64, Windows 7 x64 and Windows Server 2008 R2 x64.

Step 02: Run the installer (OUI).
Double click on setup.exe. Ignore the following prerequisite errors displayed by Oracle Universal Installer and complete the installation:
i) Checking operating system requirements
ii) Checking service pack requirements
(Click on the Ignore Errors Check Box)

Another option is to run the following command from the command line:
change to the directory where the Oracle files were extracted.
Then run the command:
> setup.exe -ignoreSysprereqs
(command is case sensitive)
This will ignore the Pre-Requisite checks.