Windows 8 hiding java.exe and other files in System32

Question

I am running Windows 8 Professional and I am trying to run Eclipse as a non-administrator user without success. Eclipse terminates with "JVM Terminated, Error code 2".

Eclipse tries to use %SYSTEM32%\javaw.exe inspite of JAVA_HOME being set to %PROGRAM_FILES%\Java\jdk1.7.0_07.

I have a non-administrator user account and when I type dir c:\windows\system32\java* it results in "File Not Found".

Here is where it gets strange. If I open a command prompt as Administrator and type the same command I get:

Directory of C:\Windows\System32
09/24/2012  10:16 AM           188,904 java.exe
09/24/2012  10:16 AM           189,416 javaw.exe
09/24/2012  10:16 AM           289,768 javaws.exe

I have full read and execute access in %SYSTEM32% as my normal user, but I only see 2414 files in System32 as opposed to 3107 if running as administrator.

What is going on and is there any way to fix this?

Solution

I had a similar problem and solved it as follows:

• In Windows 8 » Control Panel » User Account » Turned Off User Access Control.
• Created a directory called : c:\apps
• Installed JDK to c:\apps\java; The installed jre to c:\apps\java\jre\
• Installed Eclipse for Java Developers to c:\apps\eclipse
• Started eclipse.exe by right clicking and running as Administrator.
• Eclipse started.

Confirmed all is OK by building and running a "Hello World" Java project.

Comments

[Krister Renaud]

I got Eclipse to run by editing the eclipse.ini file to point to the JDK by using the -vm switch. But I still cannot understand why I cannot access java in System32 as non-admin user.

[user1984103]

Are you running a 64-bit system, with Eclipse running as 32-bit? %SYSTEM32% points to C:\Windows\SysWoW64 in such a scenario. (This is used for the Windows-on-Windows abstraction layer that supports the cross-architecture functionality, or at least it did in windows vista/windows XP)

[surfasb]

@DarthAndroid: That should be an answer!

[Krister Renaud]

Deleting java*.exe from \Windows\System32 solved problems with all other apps too. Android SDK installer for instance tried to use \Windows\System32\java* instead of looking at JAVA_HOME or PATH which made it fail. But, the question remains why Windows 8 hides java.exe if it is in \Windows\System32.

[Krister Renaud]

Ah! I changed the setting "Protect system files" in Explorer, but didn't open a new CMD.EXE. Now the java files appear.