Cannot use Java 7 installation if Java 8 is installed

Question

I normally still use Java 7 for all my coding projects (it\'s a company \"politics\" issue), but I installed Java 8 for one third-party project I am contributing to. Now, it see

Answer 1

You can select the JRE version from the command line with the -version: option.

> java -version:"1.7" MyClass

should select the 1.7 JRE if installed properly.

The list of the properly installed JRE is in the registry, see the key :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment  (32bit)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment  (64bit)

You can set the "CurrentVersion" there if you want a different default version than the latest.

See http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/tools/windows/java.html#options

Don't modify your PATH to point to a particuliar JRE, let the special java.exe in Windows/system32 do the job.