Oracle 8i on windows 10

Oracle 8i isn't supported on Windows 10.

You needed 11.2.0.4 in order to run Oracle on Windows 8 - let alone Windows 10

I'll see if I can find the OS compatibility chart for  you...

There is "Supported" and what will run...

Have you tried 8i on the Windows 10 machine?  I doubt it will run but I would be interested in the error message received when you tried to start it up.

I'm running 11.2.0.2 or 11.2.0.3 (I know it isn't 11.2.0.4) on Windows 10 at home.  Again, probably not "supported" but it runs fine.

Well, there is that - I know we had problems with Windows 8 machines and Oracle clients < 11.2.0.4 working at all.  Never tried the database software though.  From a having to support it stand point it's just not worth the hassle.

If it runs, great.  I know I wouldn't want to be doing anything production in an unsupported configuration though.

>>problems with Windows 8 machines and Oracle clients < 11.2.0.4

I skipped over 8.  I went from Win7 to 10.  I was actually shocked when my database started up!

>> I know I wouldn't want to be doing anything production in an unsupported configuration though.

I agree 100%.  But since they have 8i, they are used to being unsupported...

>>This also allows you to snapshot the virtual-computer for backups.  

A word of caution if the VM is running an Oracle instance:  A snapshot of VM running a live database should not be considered a database backup.

I would shut the instance down and take a snapshot to maintain integrity.

I recommended virtual box or vmware independent of the OS because it allows a person to no longer be tied to a specific OS.  OVB allows them to use Mac or Linux as well.

I would caution anyone about being negative on the concept of virtual computers.  Every "cloud" is a collection of virtuals.  Virtually every major computing environment is running virtuals in as many places as possible to reduce cost and maximize ROI.

I highly recommend virtual box as well.

I use it to run XP on linux and windows hosts and have gone back as far as Oracle DB vs 7.3 with it.

I should have mentioned in original post that this is a test environment not production. However, our production environment is Oracle 8i running on Win server 2003 so, as mentioned here, we're quite used to running things that are unsupported. ;-) Thanks to all.