How can I detect the installed Sun/Oracle JRE on Windows?

Question

I tried googling the answer, but all I found was tips on how to detect Java from a browser or the very generic way of just starting Java and see if it runs, which introduces a possibly long delay in my application. (~ two seconds when started the very first time on my machine)

I hope there is a faster way, if the following restrictions apply:

• Only Sun/Oracle JREs or JDKs
• Only 1.6 and higher
• Only Windows platforms
• Not from a browser, but from a plain old Win32 executable

This detection is not meant for a public application, but for internal use on Windows platforms only.

Is there a registry path I can read or some configuration file I can parse?

Answer 1

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment

Answer 2

Windows > Start > cmd >

C:> for %i in (java.exe) do @echo.   %~$PATH:i

If you have a JRE installed, the Path is displayed, for example: C:\Windows\System32\java.exe