Java Error opening registry key

Question

I get this error when I try to do anything with Java in command prompt:

Error opening registry key 'Software\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment.3'
Error: could not find Java.dll
Error: could not find Java 2 Runtime Environment

I did screw around with deleting Java directories and registry a few days ago. I restarted computer and java was still working fine, then i restarted it again today and now I get this error. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling but that doesn't seem to work. I have the latest java JRE installed and the path set in the environment variables. Anyone have any clue how to fix this?

Answer 1

If you have "C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath" in your PATH, just make sure that the java bin path entries are present before this entry in your PATH.

I was facing the exact same issue, and I just moved the java jdk/jre bin path entries up in the list, above the oracle entry and it resolved my issue.

Answer 2

I had a similar problem. I had installed JDK7 update 1 but couldn't use it (probably because I found a JRE6 that I deleted after installing JDK7). Uninstalling JDK7 was impossible. The solution was to add the JRE registry entries by hand.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment]
"CurrentVersion"="1.7"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment\1.7]
"JavaHome"="C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jre7"
"RuntimeLib"="C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jre7\\bin\\client\\jvm.dll"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment\1.7.0_01]
"JavaHome"="C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jre7"
"RuntimeLib"="C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jre7\\bin\\client\\jvm.dll"

You'll have to adjust the above to your own directories and version.

If this doesn't help, there's still JavaRa https://singularlabs.com/software/javara/ .

Answer 3

Make sure to delete java references from system32, SysWOW64, and delete javapath from ProgramData\Oracle\Java. It solves the issue

Answer 4

I followed multiple answers from above and got my issue resolved.

Issue:

Javac was on 13 from jdk but java was using 1.8 from jre so java threw incompatible runtime error

Fix:

1. Under Control Panel -> Programs: I uninstalled 1.8 (named Java 8 runtime) and DID NOT touch the other one (named Java (TM) SE Development Kit 13)

2. Deleted java.exe, javac.exe and javawc.exe files from: a. C:\Windows\system32 b. C:\Windows\SysWOW64 c. C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath

3. The environment variable JDK_HOME was pointing to 13 but JAVA_HOME was pointing to 1.8 so i pointed JAVA_HOME to also use 13 which was C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-13.0.1

4. There was a Path variable under both User variables and system variables sections. For the one in user variables section, i added the string %JDK_HOME% - which translated automatically to the physical path. For the one under system variables, I deleted the path C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath and added C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-13.0.1\bin

All good now! Thanks to all the people who answered, you rock!

Answer 5

Make sure you remove any java.exe, javaw.exe and javaws.exe from your Windows\System32 folder and if you have an x64 system (Win 7 64 bits) also do the same under Windows\SysWOW64.

If you can't find them at these locations, try deleting them from C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath.

Answer 6

Delete these 3 files present in your local at path C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath

java.exe
javaw.exe
javaws.exe

This solved the issue for me :)

Answer 7

I have Windows 7. I got the same problem after installing: PyCharm. I wasn't satisfied with PyCharm, so I decided to use Eclipse instead. This is when I discovered that things went wrong with my JDK. I used to have Java.9.x. So I decided to uninstall it and get the newer version (at my time it was Java.11.x. The same problem persisted. I followed most of the steps mentioned above in the post like: - Removing all java*.exe files, - removing Java related entries from the registry. - Cleaning-up all unnecessary Java folders. However nothing helped. I still had something in the system referring to a broken Java pathname.

What really brought remedy is the following: - Uninstalled what ever version of JDK I had at the moment. - Re-Installed the last JDK version I had before the problem took place - Properly uninstall that version. - Install whatever latest version of SDK. ..

That's it .. at this point everything returned to normal ... Except that Java.11.xx did not fix the system path automatically, I had to do it manually.

Answer 8

On Windows 10 I had just installed the JDK, and got these errors when checking the version. I had to delete all executable files starting with java (i.e. java.exe, javaw.exe and javaws.exe) from C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath. And then, once deleted, re-run the JDK installer, restart my terminal program and java -v works.

Answer 9

I had the same:

Error opening registry key 'Software\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment

Clearing Windows\SysWOW64 doesn't help for Win7

In my case it installing JDK8 offline helped (from link)

Answer 10

There are 3 locations to check

1. Registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment\1.8.0_xxx\JavaHome
2. Java Control Panel- Java tab - View - Path
3. Environment Variables - Path ($env:Path)

All 3 have to align (if you have multiple entires just remove the wrong ones) - thats all

Answer 11

You will find a folder named "Oracle" on ProgramData folder in your windows installed drive. Remove the folder. Hope it will work. In my case my install drive is C and my path is C:\ProgramData\Oracle

Answer 12

I got this kind of error whe nI had JDK 1.7 before and I installed JAVA JDK 1.8 and pointed my JAVA_HOME and PATH variables to JAVA 1.8 version. When I try to find the java version I got this error. I restarted my machine, and it works . It seems to be we have to restart the machine after modifying the environment variables.

Answer 13

Uninstall Java (via Control Panel / Programs and Features)

Install Java JRE 7 --> OFFLINE <-- Configure JAVA_HOME and Path = %JAVA_HOME%/bin;%PATH%

Answer 14

In case a virus scanner (like McAfee) is running, try:

1. Disable virus scanner
2. Uninstall Java (via Control Panel / Programs and Features)
3. Reinstall Java (from Java.com)
4. Re-enable virus scanner

Answer 15

Make sure you remove any java.exe, javaw.exe and javaws.exe from your system.

• if you have an x32 system (Win XP 32 bits) Windows\System32 folder

• if you have an x64 system (Win 7 64 bits) also do the same under Windows\SysWOW64 folder

Answer 16

I would have tagged this as a comment but cant (dont have the rep) just wanted to thank Tilman. I was trying to get PDFsam (PDF Split and Merge) to work to no avail.

At launch it would produce an error stating that it could not find JRE 1.6.0. I Have both 32 and 64 bit versions and they check out fine at the java website in their respective browsers.

Tried uninstalling/reinstalling and rebooting repeatedly as well as using JavaRa. No such luck, still no go.

I looked in the registry after reading this post and there was no ...\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\ key so I added each with their respective string values pointing to my x86 version (PDFsam is a 32bit program). This got past the first problem but an error popped up about amd64 libraries suggesting the machine wanted to run the 64bit version. So I changed the paths to the 64bit JRE and PDFsam now works.

FYI - I got here by searching for Java registry keys after I was unable to launch javaw.exe from command prompt (even after adding the requisite paths to system path), making the aforementioned changes solved this as well.