Multiple Oracle Installations, Multiple Oracle Locations in PATH

[SlimXero]

So I'm attempting to help someone fix their laptop. When he has his path as the following, one program he uses works, and the other does not:

C:\oraclexe\app\oracle\product\10.2.0\server\bin;C:\oracle\ora112\base\client\bin;

If he swaps the first two entries, like so:

C:\oracle\ora112\base\client\bin;C:\oraclexe\app\oracle\product\10.2.0\server\bin;

Then the program that did not work before works, the program that did work before, works no longer. To clarify, they begin asking for the paths to their databases.

I know that this is because the PATH uses the first folder it finds with an identically named file. What I don't know is how I can either A.) Circumvent that behavior or B.) Reconfigure one of these programs to go directly to the folder in question instead of referring to the PATH variables to locate it's resources. He's running Windows 7 enterprise x64.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

 

[SlimXero]

Okay, So he pulled me into a team-mates cubicle and showed me his setup. Exact same PATH setup, exact same software installations and versions, but he doesn't have to change his PATH to open things. So i've pulled copies of each of their registry's, hoping that the answer lies there.

 

[SlimXero]

And after searching the registry (and reading 7,000 instances of the word oracle from the registry), i could find VERY few instances that weren't absolute references (hence not affected by the PATH). I'm out of ideas.