Running Java gives "Error: could not open `C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\lib\amd64\jvm.cfg'"

I checked my environment variables - JAVA_HOME & PATH and they all refer to C:\java. So this was bit frustrating. After sometime I found that the default installation also copied java.exe, javaw.exe and javaws.exe to C:\Windows\System32 (i.e. uninstall of JRE didn't go well). I just removed them and voila, I'm back on track. That annoying error is no longer popping.

This works for me

So, If exists, remove java.exe, javaw.exe and javaws.exe from System32


put %JAVA_HOME%\bin at the begin of PATH.


Might be a slightly different cause, but that second issue occurs for me in scala 2.9.0.1 on Win7 (x64), though scala-2.9.1.final has already resolved this issue mentioned here:

\Java\jdk1.6.0_25\bin\java.exe was unexpected at this time.

My %JAVA_HOME% set to a path like this: c:\program files(x86)\Java\jdk...

Note the space and the parentheses.

If you change line 24 in %SCALA_HOME%\bin\scala.bat from:

if exist "%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java.exe" set _JAVACMD=%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java.exe

to

if exist "%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java.exe" set "_JAVACMD=%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java.exe"

It works fine. Note the quotes around the set command parameters, this will properly enclose any spaces and 'special' characters (eg: spaces and parentheses) in the variable's value.

Hope this helps someone else searching for an answer.


I had the same problem: I have a 64 bit Windows and when I typed "java -version" in CMD-Console i received the same Error message. Try to start a 64bit-cmd(C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cmd.exe) and you will see, it works there ;)