This page describes options for installing, configuring, and creating a log file for the Windows Java Runtime Environment.
This page contains the following topics:
See "JDK 8 and JRE 8 Installation Start Here" for general information about installing JDK 8 and JRE 8.
This page describes options for installation of the Java SE Runtime Environment (JRE) on Windows 32-bit platform. It is intended for:
System administrators deploying the JRE with Java Plug-in and Java Web Start technologies on multiple PCs in their Intranet without user interaction.
Vendors having products requiring the JRE. The JRE can be silently (non-interactively from the command line) installed with their product.
JRE installers are built using Microsoft Window Installer (MSI) 2.0 technology. MSI contains built-in support for silent installations. This topic explains how to manually install the JRE using the .exe file that runs the MSI.
In this section, the notation jre refers to the installer base file name, for example, jre-8u05-windows-i586. The Java SE 8 Windows Offline Installer command has the following syntax:
jre.exe [/s] [INSTALLDIR=drive:\JRE_install_path] [STATIC=1] [WEB_JAVA=0/1] [WEB_JAVA_SECURITY_LEVEL=VH/H/M]
Where:
jre.exe is the single executable installer for the JRE.
/s, if used, indicates a silent installation.
INSTALLDIR, if used, specifies the drive and path of the installed JRE. If INSTALLDIR is not specified, the installation goes in C:\Program Files\java\jre (default location).
STATIC=1, if used, specifies a static installation. For more information about static installations, see "Static Installation".
WEB_JAVA=0, if used, disables any Java application from running in the browser. WEB_JAVA=1, the default, enables Java applications in the browser. This field is available as of the 7u10 release. For more information, see http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/technotes/guides/jweb/client-security.html#install.
WEB_JAVA_SECURITY_LEVEL, if used, sets the security level of unsigned Java apps running in a browser. The possible values for this field are VH (very high), H (high, the default), or M (medium). This field is available as of the 7u10 release. For more information, see http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/technotes/guides/jweb/client-security.html#install.
Command-line installation does not provide the option to restore security prompts that were previously hidden for applets and Java Web Start applications. Security prompts that were hidden remain hidden. The Restore Security Prompts button on the Security tab of the Java Control Panel can be used to restore prompts after the JRE is installed. See http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/technotes/guides/jweb/jcp/jcp.html#restore_prompts for more information.
This topic covers the following topics:
In the past when a user installed different versions of a Java Runtime Environment (JRE), the user would be left with multiple installation directories and several entries in the Add/Remove Programs dialog in the Control Panel. This resulted in unnecessary proliferation of unused JREs.
The JRE can now be installed in two configurations: patch-in-place and static. JRE updates may be configured to patch a pre-existing installation or do a brand new installation.
The JRE can be installed in silent (unattended) or non-silent modes. For more information on silent install and uninstalling a silent installation, see "Command-Line Installation".
The patch-in-place mode implies that when a version of the JRE exists on a machine, any updates belonging to the same JRE family will be done in place, meaning, the existing JRE will be patched with changes. A JRE is installed in patch-in-place mode by default. The default installation directory is c:\Program Files\Java\jren where n is the Java SE minor version number (for example, n = 8 for version 1.8.0_10).
For example, if a user has previously installed JRE 8u10 in the c:\Program Files\Java\jre8 directory, and now attempts to install JRE 8u14, the version 8u14 installer does not create a new directory. Instead, it updates the pre-existing c:\Program Files\Java\jre8 directory with the new 8u14 content. The user is left with the 8u14 JRE only. The 8u10 JRE no longer exists.
When a JRE is installed in the static mode, it will not be updated in place by newer versions. A later version of the same JRE family will be installed in a separate directory. This mode ensures that vendors, who require a specific version of the JRE for their product, can be certain that the JRE will not be overwritten by a newer version.
Some of the characteristics of a static JRE installation are as follows:
A static JRE installation (example: 8u15) will ignore a previous patch-in-place installation of another JRE (example: 8u10)
A static JRE installation is never overwritten by another JRE version
When a newer JRE version is present (example: 8u15), older JRE versions (example: 8u12) are installed in static mode only
A patch-in-place JRE can be overwritten by a static JRE installation of the same version. The user will be left with one static JRE installation.
The default installation directory of a static JRE is of the form c:/Program Files/Java/jreversion. For example, by default, a static JRE for Java SE 8u10 will be installed in the directory c:/Program Files/Java/jre1.8.0_10.
See "Java SE Runtime Environment Update Scenarios" for examples of how the installer behaves.
Use a log file to verify that an installation succeeded. To create a log file describing the installation, append /L C:\pathsetup.log to the install command and scroll to the end of the log file to verify.
The following is an example of creating a log file:
jre-8-windows-i586.exe /s /L C:\pathsetup.log
This example causes the log to be written to the pathsetup.log file.
