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I am really frustrated to see following behavior and not sure yet after research how to fixed this. I've two separate projects one works only on Java 7 (can't update to Java 8) and another project works on Java 8 (can't downgrade to 7). So I've both Java 7 and 8 installed on my windows machine.

So, I am seeing following behavior constantly. Currently I am on Java 8 and would like switch back Java 7, so I changed environment variable JAVA_HOME and PATH to point to Java 7, but when I verify through CMD, it shows me following.

C:\>java -version
java version "1.8.0_45"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_45-b15)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.45-b02, mixed mode)

C:\>javac -version
javac 1.7.0_71

I can't use above combination, neither projects works for me. So I always need to uninstalled Java 8 and then only I can point to Java 7. Also if I want to move back to Java 8 (again installed Java 8), then it shows me following combination. How to fixed this error on Windows? As uninstalling the JDK every time is not the solution. Please help me.

C:\>java -version
java version "1.7.0_71"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_71-b15)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.45-b02, mixed mode)

C:\>javac -version
javac 1.8.0_45
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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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java.exe, the Java runtime, also installs in c:\windows or c:\windows\system32 (can't remember, I'm on a Mac now).

So even if your PATH contains the bin directory of JDK, if c:\windows (or c:\windows\system32) comes before JDK\bin in the PATH, the version in c:\windows (or c:\windows\system32) is the one that is used.

Just make sure the JDK is first in the PATH, or at least before c:\windows (or c:\windows\system32).

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3 Comments

Have you restarted cmd.exe after making this change? Because that's not taken into account in existing cmd.exe instances. Also, what is C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath?
Lately I've seen links in C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath and that dir added to path. I can no longer find java.exe in any windows dir. Also it's 64 bit so I don't think it would be in sys32.
JBNizet provided the right answer. @User4567570: Setting JAVA_HOME env. variable to the path of the JDK (e.g. c:\java\jdk8u60) to use is the only things to update, if the PATH env. variable itself is set with %JAVA_HOME%\bin, and if its position is located before the declaration of system32. The console need to be restarted for the environment variables to take effect. The discrepency between javac -version and java -version means that both location are defined, for each JDK, in the path.

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