How to Install Oracle APEX 26.1 on Windows 11 (AI Database 26ai Free + ORDS 26.2)

The full local stack: database, APEX engine and web listener on one Windows 11 laptop.

Oracle APEX 26.1 is out. It's the "APEX 26 AI" release, with AI Agents, APEXlang and NL2IR, and I wanted a proper local environment to play with it. Not a cloud trial, my own laptop, where I can break things and start again.

So I installed the whole stack on Windows 11. It mostly went smoothly, but I hit three problems that don't give you a clear error message, and each one cost me some time. This post is the guide I wish I'd had: every command I ran, in order, plus the fixes.

What we're installing

Three pieces, plus Java to run one of them:

• Oracle AI Database 26ai Free (23.26.0). Holds the APEX engine and your data.
• Oracle APEX 26.1, installed into the pluggable database FREEPDB1.
• Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS) 26.2.3. The web listener that puts APEX in your browser.
• Java 17 or newer, because ORDS needs it.

Your browser never talks to the database directly. Everything goes through ORDS.

Versions and requirements

One folder for everything

I kept the whole install under one root folder. It makes everything easy to find, easy to back up and easy to remove later if you want a clean start.

D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\
  database\        Oracle Database home + installer
  apex\            APEX installer + static images
  ords\            ORDS software, config and logs
  scripts\         my verification scripts
  documentation\   install notes

The whole job at a glance. The red tags are where people usually trip up.

Step 1: Download the installers

These direct links work without logging in:

While those download, check your Java version:

java -version

If it says 17 or higher, you're set. Nothing else to install.

Step 2: Install Oracle AI Database 26ai Free

Unzip the database download. Next to setup.exe there's a response file called FREEInstall.rsp. Make a copy (I called mine FREEInstall_custom.rsp) and change these values:

INSTALLDIR=D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\database\
PASSWORD=YourStrongPassword_1
LISTENER_PORT=1521
CHAR_SET=AL32UTF8
SOFTWARE_ONLY=FALSE
MODIFY_DIRECTORY_PERMISSIONS=TRUE

PASSWORD becomes the password for SYS, SYSTEM and PDBADMIN. Pick a strong one and keep it somewhere safe, you'll need it again in Step 4.

Now open Command Prompt as Administrator and run the silent install:

cd D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\database\installer\extracted
setup.exe /s /v"RSP_FILE=D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\database\installer\extracted\FREEInstall_custom.rsp" /v"/L*v D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\database\logs\install.log" /v"/qn"

The install takes a while. When it's done you should have:

• Oracle home: D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\database\dbhomeFree
• Container database FREE and pluggable database FREEPDB1
• Two Windows services, OracleServiceFREE and OracleOraDB23Home1TNSListener, with the listener on port 1521

The installer adds dbhomeFree\bin to your PATH. I also set these system environment variables so the tools always pick up the right home:

ORACLE_HOME = D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\database\dbhomeFree
ORACLE_SID  = FREE
TNS_ADMIN   = D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\database\dbhomeFree\network\admin

Open a new command prompt (so it sees the new variables) and check the database:

sqlplus / as sysdba

SELECT banner FROM v$version;
SHOW PDBS
SHOW PARAMETER sga_target
SHOW PARAMETER pga_aggregate_target
EXIT

lsnrctl status

FREEPDB1 should show READ WRITE. On my machine the Free edition gave me about 1.5 GB of SGA and 512 MB of PGA, which was enough for APEX.

Step 3: Install APEX 26.1 into FREEPDB1

Unzip apex_26.1_en.zip. Then open a command prompt inside the extracted apex folder. That part matters: the install script calls other scripts with relative paths, so it has to run from there.

cd D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\apex\installer\apex
sqlplus / as sysdba

ALTER SESSION SET CONTAINER = FREEPDB1;

Now run the silent installer. It takes eight arguments:

@apxsilentins.sql SYSAUX SYSAUX TEMP /i/ PubUser_Pwd1! Listener_Pwd1! RestPub_Pwd1! Admin_Pwd1!

This took about 15 minutes for me. Good time for a cup of tea. When it's done, check APEX is valid:

SELECT comp_name, version, status
FROM   dba_registry
WHERE  comp_name LIKE '%APEX%';

SELECT username, account_status
FROM   dba_users
WHERE  username IN ('APEX_PUBLIC_USER','APEX_LISTENER','APEX_REST_PUBLIC_USER');

This is what you want to see before you move on: APEX 26.1.0 VALID, and the three accounts OPEN.

If it happened to you too, run this from the same folder, still inside FREEPDB1:

@apxchpwd.sql

It asks for the ADMIN username, email and password, and creates the user if it doesn't exist yet. Use a password with a symbol in it, like !, # or _.

Last thing for this step: copy the APEX static files (the apex\images folder from the zip) somewhere permanent. ORDS will serve them from there.

xcopy /E /I /Y D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\apex\installer\apex\images D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\apex\images

Step 4: Install and configure ORDS

Unzip ords-latest.zip and check which version you got:

D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\ords\installer\extracted\bin\ords.exe --version

To install ORDS without any prompts, create a temporary text file, say pw.txt, with two lines: the SYS password on line one, and a new password for ORDS_PUBLIC_USER on line two. Then run this in Command Prompt (cmd.exe):

cd D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\ords\installer\extracted\bin

ords.exe --config D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\ords\config install ^
  --admin-user SYS ^
  --db-hostname localhost --db-port 1521 --db-servicename FREEPDB1 ^
  --feature-sdw true --feature-db-api true --feature-rest-enabled-sql true ^
  --gateway-mode proxied --gateway-user APEX_PUBLIC_USER ^
  --log-folder D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\ords\logs ^
  --password-stdin < D:\path\to\pw.txt

The install creates the ORDS_PUBLIC_USER account and sets up the PL/SQL gateway for APEX. ORDS keeps its passwords in a wallet inside the config folder, so they're not stored as plain text.

Step 5: Start ORDS and open APEX

I made a tiny launcher called start_ords.bat:

@echo off
cd /d "D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\ords\standalone"
"D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\ords\installer\extracted\bin\ords.exe" --config "D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\ords\config" serve --port 8080 --apex-images "D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\apex\images" > "D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\ords\logs\ords_serve.log" 2>&1

Run it and give it 10 to 20 seconds. When the log says Oracle REST Data Services initialized, ORDS is ready. Then open:

What ords_serve.log looks like once ORDS is up and listening on port 8080.

Administration Services: sign in as ADMIN with the password from Step 3.

Step 6: Create your own workspace

Don't build applications in the INTERNAL workspace. It's for instance administration only. Log in to Administration Services, then:

1. Go to Manage Workspaces > Create Workspace.
2. Enter a workspace name. Let APEX create a new schema for it, or pick an existing one.
3. Create a workspace administrator with your own username and password.
4. Log out, then sign in at /ords/apex with the new workspace name, username and password.

The Create Workspace wizard. Four short steps and you have your own workspace.

A quick first test

To make sure everything really works end to end, open SQL Workshop > SQL Commands in your new workspace and create the same employees table we've been using across this series:

create table employees (
    empl_id          number generated by default on null as identity primary key,
    empl_first_name  varchar2(50)  not null,
    empl_last_name   varchar2(50)  not null,
    empl_email       varchar2(100),
    empl_hire_date   date          default sysdate,
    empl_salary      number(10,2)
);

insert into employees (empl_first_name, empl_last_name, empl_email, empl_salary)
values ('Ali', 'Khan', 'ali.khan@example.com', 85000);

select empl_id, empl_first_name, empl_last_name, empl_hire_date, empl_salary
  from employees;

SQL Commands in the new workspace, returning our first employees row.

If you get your row back, the database, APEX and ORDS are all talking to each other. You're ready to build.

Step 7 (recommended): Start ORDS automatically after a reboot

The database runs as a Windows service and starts by itself. ORDS standalone doesn't. After a reboot APEX just shows "This site can't be reached" until you run start_ords.bat again. To fix that for good, create a scheduled task from an Administrator Command Prompt:

schtasks /create /tn "ORDS for APEX" /tr "D:\Oracle_APEX_26_AI\ords\standalone\start_ords.bat" /sc onstart /delay 0002:00 /ru SYSTEM

The 2 minute delay gives the database service time to come up before ORDS tries to connect. You can also set this up by hand in Task Scheduler with an "At startup" trigger. Either way, restart once to make sure it works.

Troubleshooting quick reference

The three that got me. Save this one for later.

Is a local Free setup worth it?

Happy building with APEX 26 AI! If you hit an error I haven't covered here, leave a comment and I'll try to help.