Setting the Correct Path for Eclipse

Sophia Al-Mansoor
Sophia Al-Mansoor
• • 7 min read

I Recently Changed My Path So I Could Follow Along in the Head First Java Book and I Had Eclipse Before. Now When I Try to Get onto Eclipse Again It Won't Open...

Setting the Correct Path for Eclipse

I recently changed my path so I could follow along in the Head First Java book and I had Eclipse before. Now when I try to get onto Eclipse again it won't open because it says it can't find a JRE or JDK to use in my directory. I have moved the JDK file around. I have jdk1.8.0_60 downloaded. So how can I get Eclipse to open again?

5

7 Answers

Like Abob said:

Eclipse doesn't consult the JAVA_HOME variable

You should specify where Eclipse should find your JDK in the file eclipse.ini. Specifically, the following parameter (note that it is 2 separate lines in the ini file):

-vm
C:\Java\JDK\1.8\bin\javaw.exe

or wherever your javaw.exe happens to be.

Note: The format of the ini file is very particular; make sure to consult to ensure you get it exactly right.

5

Eclipse folder has an initialization file which is used by eclipse on launch/Double click it is named as eclipse.ini. Add the following lines in eclipse.ini file. Where the vm defines the path of JVM with which we want eclipse to use.

-vm
C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8\bin\javaw.exe

Make sure you have add the above lines separately and above the following line 

--launcher.appendVmargs
-vmargs
1

Go to System Properties > Advanced > Enviroment Variables and look under System variables

Must Read

First, create/set your JAVA_HOME variable

Even though Eclipse doesn't consult the JAVA_HOME variable, it's still a good idea to set it. See How do I run Eclipse? for more information.

If you have not created and/or do not see JAVA_HOME under the list of System variables, do the following:

  1. Click New... at the very bottom
  2. For Variable name, type JAVA_HOME exactly
  3. For Variable value, this could be different depending on what bits your computer and java are.
    • If both your computer and java are 64-bit, type C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_60
    • If both your computer and java are 32-bit, type C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_60
    • If your computer is 64-bit, but your java is 32-bit, type C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.8.0_60

If you have created and/or do see JAVA_HOME, do the following:

  1. Click on the row under System variables that you see JAVA_HOME in
  2. Click Edit... at the very bottom
  3. For Variable value, change it to what was stated in #3 above based on java's and your computer's bits. To repeat:
    • If both your computer and java are 64-bit, change it to C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_60
    • If both your computer and java are 32-bit, change it to C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_60
    • If your computer is 64-bit, but your java is 32-bit, change it to C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.8.0_60
Sophia Al-Mansoor

Sophia Al-Mansoor

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Sophia analyzes international trade, startup ecosystems, retail transformation, and supply chain logistics for modern digital publications.