Switching to java 11 from java 8
In order to execte program from another folder than bin using java 11 you must set the JAVA_HOME path as follows from CMD:
Open CMD as Administrator
Set JAVA_HOME to JDK 11 bin folder
setx -m JAVA_HOME "C:\Program File\Java\..."
bin folder contains all the traditional JRE tools. In Java 11, both JDK and JRE tools are consolidated so that there is no JRE within JDK 11.
The JDK includes the JRE which you can launch by using the java
executable in the bin
folder. You use this executable just like any other executable.
When you type java
in the command line it is actually shorthand. It searches your PATH
until it finds the first matching java
executable. If you want to specify a different java
executable you can give the absolute path to the executable.
C:\Users\Avril> "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-11.0.1\bin\java" -jar path\to\file.jar
You may be wondering, if you've set JAVA_HOME
and PATH
to point to JDK-11, why does java -version
still use Java 8?
Take a look at your PATH
and you'll likely find something like C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath
as one of the first entries (see this). This entry was added automatically when you installed Java 8 and points to the Java 8 executables (java
, javaw
, and javaws
). Since it's before your %JAVA_HOME%\bin
entry, it takes precedence. However, ...\javapath
doesn't contain javac
and that's why javac -version
used JAVA_HOME
(Java 11).