Installing and configuring Java Development Kit (JDK) for Windows

There are 2 methods available on how a user can download and install the Java Development Kit (JDK) on a Windows environment.

Install via the official Oracle JDK website

Java can be downloaded from the official Oracle JDK Downloads website here depending on the requirement of the end-user or organization.Install via the OpenJDK binaries for an open-source and specific version of the JDK

Using the OpenJDK binaries edition to install the JDK will be free as it is open-source and not subject to any licensing complication with Oracle.

The OpenJDK binaries contains an extensive library of the previous versions of the OpenJDK available for downloading. Access to past versions might be required for an end-user due to development/product compatibility, or other technical requirements for development for the organization. Further information can be found here.

For Java applications to run, the user needs to set up a JAVA_HOME environment variable that will point to the Java installation directory. In addition, if the user wants to run Java commands from a command prompt they will need to set up the PATH environment variable to contain the Java bin directory.

When using Windows, the above parameters can be configured in the Environment Variables panel. Select the Start button and type env (Figure 1):

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Figure 1 Edit environment variables for your account

Note: Environment variables can be set at the account level, or at the system level.

In this example, select Edit environment variables for your account (Figure 2):

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Figure 2 Environment Variables 

Select New... and enter JAVA_HOME as the Variable name and the java_install_dir as the Variable value before selecting OK (Figure 3):

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Figure 3 Edit User Variable

Note: In this example, the installation directory is C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_172.

Select New... and enter PATH as the Variable name and the %JAVA_HOME%\bin as the Variable value before selecting OK (Figure 4):

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Figure 4 New User Variable

Note: If a PATH variable already exists, add ;%JAVA_HOME%\bin at the end of the Variable name.

Once these variables have been configured, the following will be displayed (Figure 5):

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Figure 5 Environment Variables

To test the above configuration has been entered correctly, open a command prompt from the Start button, type java -version and press Enter. This should display the results below (Figure 6):

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Figure 6 Results

The install will now be complete.

If the install fails, please contact the Symphony Support team at support@symphony.com and inform them that you are experiencing issues with a JDK install for Windows.