How can I change the Java Runtime Version on Windows 7

Question

How can I change the Java Runtime Version on Windows   I installed Java nbsp 7 for some tests  and now I need the old java6 as system default  but I don t want to uninstall the Java nbsp 7  I need it for later tests   Can I change the system-used JRE in the control panel Java JRE tab  I can change edit add delete the user-used version  but not the system-used

User · Answer

Since Java 1 6  a java exe is installed into  windir  system32 that supports a  -version  command line option   You can use this to select a specific version to run  e g    java -version 1 7 -jar  path to jar file    will run a jar application in java 1 7  if it is installed   See Oracle s documentation here  http   docs oracle com javase 6 docs technotes tools windows java html

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Go to control panel --  Java You can select the active version here

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Update your environment variables  Ensure the reference to java bin is up to date in  Path   This may be automatic if you have JAVA HOME or equivalent set  If JAVA HOME is set  simply update it to refer to the older JRE installation

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I use to work on UNIX-like machines  but recently I have had to do some work with Java on a Windows 7 machine  I have had that problem and this is the I ve solved it  It has worked right for me so I hope it can be used for whoever who may have this problem in the future  These steps are exposed considering a default Java installation on drive C  You should change what it is necessary in case your installation is not a default one  Change Java default VM on Windows 7 Suppose we have installed Java 8 but for whatever reason we want to keep with Java 7  1- Start a cmd as administrator 2- Go to C  ProgramData Oracle Java 3- Rename the current directory javapath to javapath  lt version it refers to gt   E g   rename javapath javapath 1 8 4- Create a javapath  lt version you want by default gt  directory  E g   mkdir javapath 1 7 5- cd into it and create the following links  cd javapath 1 7 mklink java exe  quot C  Program Files Java jre7 bin java exe quot  mklink javaw exe  quot C  Program Files Java jre7 bin javaw exe quot  mklink javaws exe  quot C  Program Files Java jre7 bin javaws exe quot   6- cd out and create a directory link javapath pointing to the desired javapath  E g   mklink  D javapath javapath 1 7 7- Open the register and change the key HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE JavaSoft Java Runtime Environment CurrentVersion to have the value 1 7 At this point if you execute java -version you should see that you are using java version 1 7  java version  quot 1 7 0 71 quot  Java TM  SE Runtime Environment  build 1 7 0 71-b14  Java HotSpot TM  64-Bit Server VM  build 24 71-b01  mixed mode   8- Finally it is a good idea to create the environment variable JAVA HOME  To do that I create a directory link named CurrentVersion in C  Program Files Java pointing to the Java version I m interested in  E g   cd C  Program Files Java  mklink  D CurrentVersion   jdk1 7 0 71  9- And once this is done   Right click My Computer and select Properties  On the Advanced tab  select Environment Variables  and then edit create JAVA HOME to point to where the JDK software is located  in that case  C  Program Files Java CurrentVersion

User · Answer

For Java applications  i e  programs that are delivered  usually  as  jar files and started with java -jar xxx jar or via a shortcut that does the same  the JRE that will be launched will be the first one found on the PATH    If you installed a JRE or JDK  the likely places to find the  exes are below directories like  C  Program Files JavaSoft JRE x y z  However  I ve found some  out of the box  Windows installations to  also   have copies of java exe and javaw exe in C  winnt system32  NT and 2000  or C  windows system  Windows 95  98   This is usually a pretty elderly version of Java  1 3  maybe  You ll want to do java -version in a command window to check that you re not running some antiquated version of Java   You can of course override the PATH setting or even do without it by explicitly stating the path to java exe   javaw exe in your command line or shortcut definition     If you re running applets from the browser  or possibly also Java Web Start applications  they look like applications insofar as they have their own window  but you start them from the browser   the choice of JRE is determined by a set of registry settings   Key  HKEY LOCAL MACHINE Software JavaSoft Java Runtime Environment Name  CurrentVersion Value   e g   1 3   More registry keys are created using this scheme    e g    HKEY LOCAL MACHINE Software JavaSoft Java Runtime Environment 1 3    HKEY LOCAL MACHINE Software JavaSoft Java Runtime Environment 1 3 1   i e  one for the major and one including the minor version number  Each of these keys has values like these  examples shown    JavaHome      C  program Files JavaSoft JRE 1 3 1 RuntimeLib    C  Program Files JavaSoft JRE 1 3 1 bin hotspot jvm dll MicroVersion  1       and your browser will look to these settings to determine which JRE to fire up   Since Java versions are changing pretty frequently  there s now a  wizard  called the  Java Control Panel  for manually switching your browser s Java version  This works for IE  Firefox and probably others like Opera and Chrome as well  It s the  Java  applet in Windows  System Settings app  You get to pick any one of the installed JREs  I believe that wizard fiddles with those registry entries   If you re like me and have  uninstalled  old Java versions by simply wiping out directories  you ll find these  ghosts  among the choices too  so make sure the JRE you choose corresponds to an intact Java installation     Some other answers are recommending setting the environment variable JAVA HOME  This is meanwhile outdated advice  Sun came to realize  around Java 2  that this environment setting is    unreliable  as users often set it incorrectly  and  unnecessary  as it s easy enough for the runtime to find the Java library directories  knowing they re in a fixed path relative to the path from which java exe or javaw exe was launched     There s hardly any modern Java software left that needs or respects the JAVA HOME environment variable     More Information     http   java sun com j2se 1 3 runtime win32 html  http   www rgagnon com javadetails java-0604 html      and some useful information on multi-version support    http   www rgagnon com javadetails java-0604 html

User · Answer

All you need to do is set the PATH environment variable in Windows to point to where your java6 bin directory is instead of the java7 directory     Right click My Computer   Advanced System Settings   Advanced   Environmental Variables  If there is a JAVA HOME environment variable set this to point to the correct directory as well

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Once I updated my Java version to 8 as suggested by browser  However I had selected to uninstall previous Java 6 version I have been used for coding my projects  When I enter the command in   java -version  in cmd  it showed 1 8 and I could not start eclipse IDE run on Java 1 6    When I installed Java 8 update for the browser it had changed the  PATH  System variable appending  C  ProgramData Oracle Java javapath  to the beginning  Newly added path pointed to Java vesion 8  So I removed that path from  PATH  System variable and everything worked fine

User · Answer

If you are using windows 10 or windows server 2012  the steps to change the java runtime version is this    Open regedit using  Run  Navigate to HKEY LOCAL MACHINE -  SOFTWARE -  JavaSoft -  Java Runtime Environment Here you will see all the versions of java you installed on your PC  For me I have several versions of java 1 8 installed  so the folder displayed here are 1 8  1 8 0 162 and 1 8 0 171 Click the  1 8  folder  then double click the JavaHome and RuntimeLib keys  Change the version number inside to whichever Java version you want your PC to run on  For example  if the Value data of the key is  C  Program Files Java jre1 8 0 171   you can change this to  C  Program Files Java jre1 8 0 162   You can then verify the version change by typing  java -version  on the command line

[java] How can I change the Java Runtime Version on Windows (7)?

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