If you have already installed Oracle 19c following instructions available here, installing Oracle database 21c is not much different. Basically 21c is “Innovation Release” & 19c is going to be the long supported version as on date. It plainly means, there is no need to hurry to upgrade your 19c to 21c as next release will be the next long supported version.

Let us see how to install Oracle 21c on Windows (Installed on Windows 10 21H1) & the instructions are same for Windows 11 also.

You can download the 21c Windows installation media from Oracle Database 21c Download for Microsoft Windows x64

Extract the .zip and change the root folder to something like “Oracle12c” (or a name that prefer. Please avoid using spaces with the folder name, example: “Oracle 21c”)

I used a virtual machine with single drive, hence the zip file was extracted and I renamed the extracted folder root to “Oracle21c”

Once the folder is renamed to your choice, open the folder and execute the “setup.exe” as administrator. Please note, you must start the setup as administrator, regardless whether your Windows user account has administrator privileges on the system.

This will kick start the installation process and depending upon the resources available it could take minutes before the installation GUI appears for you.

Choose “Server class” regardless whether you are installing it on a Server OS or client OS. It’s all about managing the resources.

Now, this is a very interesting perspective. “The software directory is the Oracle Database home directory” & the path that you will mention in the edit box is going to be the Oracle base. I hope, now you understood why renaming the media extracted folder to a very meaningful name is important. As usual Oracle suggests you the defaults, however I recommend you to follow a pattern that you can feel comfortable with.

As you could see, the default installation sets up one pdb. You may rename the default PDB at this level.

Here I left everything to defaults as my intentions were pretty limited to installation. Unless you have a reason to set up Automatic Memory management, go ahead with the well trusted manual management, that gives you granular level control on how the memory is utilized by the database.

You can change the database character set to another from the “Choose from the following list of character sets” (Specifically for Arabic and other left to right languages)

You may choose a different location for the database data files. Just make sure that the current user has full access to the path.

Use the same password for a TEST installation & follow the Oracle recommendations for PRODUCTION environments. Please note, it’s better to use the complex passwords with expiry disabled for the default profile.

That’s all folks. It’s not like the earlier times when one had to hack the installation files to install Oracle database on newer Windows OS. Starting from 11g, Oracle database gets installed on Windows 7 and later OS without complaining as long as the OS is fully patched with updates and .NET components.

Hope this post helps few newbies (& me)