Set Oracle Home (install Oracle Home) for Toad 12.6 I had Toad 11.5 and I'm trying to install Toad 12.6, to connect to Oracle 11g on a 64-bit Windows 7 machine.

No matter what I try, when I start Toad 12.6, I get the error: "No valid Oracle clients found.  You need at least one 64-bit client properly configured."  In the install, I used a downloaded win64_11gR2_client.zip file and it sure looked like it installed.

I've finally blitzed everything I could of Toad 11 and Oracle (using https://superuser.com/questions/256762/how-do-i-completely-remove-oracle-11g/762432#762432). 

Somehow, I need to still install Oracle, or somehow set the Oracle Home.  http://documents.software.dell.com/DOC220605 says how to edit the oracle home, but even when I had Toad 11 working, I couldn't get anything when clicking the ... button in 12.6, because "You do not have any Oracle homes installed."

I've tried installing the client directly, and I get an error about the path too long.  I ignore the error and the install dies.  From research, it has said that uninstalling the 32 bit client is the way to go.  It doesn't appear to be the way to go.  

What do I try next?
Here's what worked, although I don't know if it's a good answer or not.  I had someone who could log in as an admin on my pc do the Oracle client install.  In other words, if you're not a full admin on your machine, it may fail, and not tell you why.

I had admin rights, I could edit the registry and path, but there were still some missing rights.  Logging on as administrator and doing the install worked fine.