The instructions by peter_budo worked perfectly. I had to add the jars under /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/JDK 1.7.0 Developer Preview.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ to my IntelliJ project libraries. Now it works like a charm. Note that I didn't need my IDE itself to run under 1.7; rather, I only needed to be able to compile and run against 1.7. I'll most likely continue to use Apple's JRE for running the IDE since it's probably more stable with respect to graphics routines (Swing, AWT). Like the OP, I was really keen on testing out the new NIO2 API. Looking good so far. Thanks, Peter.