Running Eclipse on Windows 7 JRE and JDK not found

Question

I downloaded the latest Eclipse on Windows 7. When I click the eclipse icon it throws the following exception:

I have already installed JRE and JDK.

UPDATE: Eclipse.ini contents:

   -startup
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.3.0.v20120522-1813.jar
--launcher.library
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86_1.1.200.v20120913-144807
-product
org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256M
-showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256m
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-Dhelp.lucene.tokenizer=standard
-Xms40m
-Xmx512m
-vm C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin

Answer 1

According to the Eclipse documentation, you may need to specify the VM before the VM args, and the path should not be on the same line as the -vm switch:

• The -vm option and its value (the path) must be on separate lines.
• The value must be the full absolute or relative path to the Java executable, not just to the Java home directory.
• The -vm option must occur before the -vmargs option, since everything after -vmargs is passed directly to the JVM.

Source: Eclipse Wiki

For example:

-vm
C:\Java\JDK\1.6\bin\javaw.exe
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-Xms40m
-Xmx1024m

You also might need to surround your path with some quotes, since it contains spaces. I always install things like Eclipse and Java in root directories with no spaces, not under Program Files, to avoid this problem.

Answer 2

Reference the location of your JRE path in the eclipse configuration file, eclipse.ini.

Note that you only need a JRE to launch Eclipse, but once Eclipse is launched, you should register a JDK for your projects. This is done via

Preferences-> Java -> Installed JREs