Issues with Java 7u65

Question

Last night a new Java 7 update has been released: 7u65. I have a web application where a service applet is loaded, and after the update, my tests on different PCs did not show issues nor wrong behaviors.

Later, I started to receive issue reports related to my product's Java service applet. All the reports came from users who updated Java JRE to 7u65 (from 7u60):

• The applet was not loading at all. I display a "Loading" screen when the application starts, and this was not being displayed. Also, all the services provided by my Java applet were unavailable.
• After changing the Java Control Panel's advanced configuration to always show the console (in one of the PCs where this issue happened), I discovered that the applet was not even launching the Java console.
• Using the same station where the error happens, trying to access java.com to check the current java version, the Java applet is loaded and the console is displayed without errors.

All tests were performed after clearing Browser and Java Cache, and even after removing the installed certificates (mine is a valid signed applet).

I checked the Java 7u65 release notes and none of the mentioned changes seem to affect my applet. Also, there were no issues while using Java 7u60.

I don't have any clues about what is going on, perhaps because the java update was released hours ago. As the Java console can not be displayed even if I configure Java Control Panel to do so, I can not tell if there is any exception. I can not reproduce the issue in my PCs (Windows 8, nor Windows 7, both at 64 bits), but the issue has been reported on Windows 7 PCs.

One of my friends told me that this seems to be happening on machines where Java 7u60 was in use, and then it was updated to Java 7u65 with no deinstallations. Also, this tends to happen in older OS (ie: WinXP) which is more natural.

I write this question because it seems very odd that some PCs have this issue, and some others not. I'd like to know if any one else is having this issue, knows what could be the reason, or has discovered/applied any solution to it. Also, I'd like to share the solution if I ever happen to find it.

Thanks.

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Edit:

External references, related to the same Java version (JRE).

• Internet Explorer crashing after updated Java to 7u65: An issue with the same JRE version, this time with Internet Explorer and Firefox.
• RS Loading Issue (Java) ~ READ: An issue related to the same JRE version update, this time, in a Java Game.
• The future of Java on Windows XP:

  This end of support announcement has been misread as "Java no longer works on Windows XP" or "Oracle will stop Java updates from being applied on Windows XP". These statements are not correct.

Answer 1

I just ran into this exact problem with one of my applets.

It looks like some changes were made to the handling of the 'java-vm-args' and 'java_arguments' params in 7u65.

'java_arguments' seems to no longer work, when it is specified, my applet will silently fail without even launching the JVM.