Oracle Discoverer - ERROR: The shiphome you are trying to install is not the proper shiphome for the current platform. The shiphome is for Microsoft Windows (32-bit) platform.

Oracle Discoverer is a dying Business Intelligence tool. Recently I ran into the following error when I was installing Oracle BI Discoverer Desktop and Discoverer Administrator 11.1.1.3.0 software to my PC. My PC runs Windows 7 on 64 bit.

Discoverer Desktop Edition and Administrator Edition are 32 bit applications.

Error:
ERROR: The shiphome you are trying to install is not the proper shiphome for the current platform.
The shiphome is for Microsoft Windows (32-bit) platform.
Try downloading the appropriate shiphome for current platform or contact Oracle Support.

Solution:

Below is a workaround to install and run this application on a Windows 64-bit workstation. Please do note that this doesn't make Discoverer certified on 64 bit platforms.

a) Launch the installer using setup.exe from directory -> \Disk1\install\win32\setup.exe instead of \Disk1\setup.exe
b) After install, right-click the Oracle Discoverer Administrator and Desktop executables (\ora_home\bin\dis51adm.exe and \ora_home\bin\dis51usr.exe) and select Properties -> Compatibility, enable "Run this program in compatibility mode" property and set it's value to "Windows XP (Service Pack 3).

Reference:

How To Install Discoverer Desktop Edition And Administrator Edition 11.1.1.3.0 On Windows 64-bit (Doc ID 1571940.1)
ALERT: Required and Recommended Patch Levels For All Discoverer Versions (Doc ID 237607.1)
How To Find Oracle BI Discoverer 10g and 11g Certification Information (Doc ID 233047.1)