title: Cannot create an instance of OLE DB Provider 'OraOLEDB.Oracle' error when creating linked servers from SQL Server to Oracle
body: <p>Aware that this topic has been raised many times here (I have gone through the posts), but none of the suggestion on the posts has resolved my issue.</p>
  
  <p>When I attempt to create a linked server to the oracle database from SQL Server Management Studio, I get the error:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Cannot create an instance of OLE DB Provider 'OraOLEDB.Oracle' for
    linker server ''. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 7302)</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>My understanding of this error is that the Oracle provider is not installed correctly or not at all.</p>
  
  <p>To check this I ran 'ODBC Data Source Administrator (64-bit) and attempted to add the provider (which was not available).</p>
  
  <p>To resolve this I fully installed Oracle 10g Client as an admin and restarted the server. I added the new oracle bin folder to the environment %PATH% as well as %TNS_ADMIN% to point to the tnsnames.ora file.</p>
  
  <p>I have run 'tnsping' using the value specified in the tnsname.ora file and it is able to connect.</p>
  
  <p>I have exhausted my ideas to get the oracle provider recognised by the ODBC 64 bit connector.</p>
  
  <p>Does anyone have any idea that could resolve this issue?</p>
  
  <p>Thank you for any help.</p>