I can run .jar files through cmd, but I cannot double click them

If you don't care too much about understanding the underlying problem, this might help:

http://johann.loefflmann.net/en/software/jarfix/index.html

--and a double-clickable .jar needs to have Main-Class correctly set in MANIFEST.MF


Just to reiterate - Meghan's answer fixed my problem of not being able to double-click to start a jar in Windows 7.

  • Open Registry editor

  • Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT->jarfile->shell->open->command

  • Modify (Default) to "[Path to working JRE]/bin/javaw.exe" -jar "%1" %*

  • Make sure .jar files are opened by [Path to working JRE]/bin/javaw.exe by default


I had the same problem, and it turns out that the .jar file association in the registry was broken. The following steps fixed it:

  • Open the Registry Editor, and navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jarfile\shell\open\command, and modify the value of the Default key as follows
  • Replace [Location of your JRE] in "[Location of your JRE]\bin\javaw.exe" -jar "%1" %* with the root directory of your JRE installation. For example, "C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin\javaw.exe" -jar "%1" %*.
  • Repeat the above steps for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\jarfile\shell\open\command.

I have a Windows 7 machine, but I assume this would work for 32-bit environments as well.

EDIT: Fixed the path in the example - it should use the "Program Files" directory and not "Program Files (x86)".

Tags:

Java

Jar

Javaw