I am using Netbeans 6.7. I had first installed Java 1.5 before installing Netbeans. When i installed Netbeans it took Java 1.5 as the default version. Then i installed Java 1.6 on my machine. I need to change the default JDK of my netbeans to 1.6 not only to a specific project but to the whole Netbeans application.
7 Answers
You can change the JDK for Netbeans by modifying the config file:
- Open
netbeans.conf
file available underetc
folder inside the NetBeans installation. - Modify the
netbeans_jdkhome
variable to point to new JDK path, and then - Restart your Netbeans.

- 4,753
- 3
- 48
- 77

- 19,223
- 11
- 88
- 133
-
2For those who already had netbeans_jdkhome with >=7 version. Put the Java EE API library into the Library folder and don't forget to set JDK 7 by right clicking on project and choosing Properties->Sources and set Source/Binary format select JDK7 among options. – Arthur Kushman Feb 08 '14 at 20:39
-
I keep getting error Invalid jdkhome specified --------------------------- Cannot locate java installation in specified jdkhome: C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.5.0_03\bin"; Do you want to try to use default version?" – Enthusiastic Nov 06 '15 at 11:54
-
1@Enthusiastic you don't need to include `bin` in the path try like this: `C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.5.0_03\` – Abdel Raoof Olakara Nov 07 '15 at 08:47
-
1@AbdelRaoof, gives the same error for that path as well. – Enthusiastic Nov 08 '15 at 15:37
-
5On OSX, I do "cd /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines" to find the different JDKs on my Mac. The version I want to use is "/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home". Then at /Applications/NetBeans/NetBeans 7.2.app/Contents/Resources/NetBeans/etc/netbeans.conf, I add this line: `netbeans_jdkhome="/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home"` – Raymond Gan Nov 03 '16 at 19:15
In my Windows 7 box I found netbeans.conf in <Drive>:\<Program Files folder>\<NetBeans installation folder>\etc
. Thanks all.

- 554
- 5
- 10
For anyone on Mac OS X, you can find netbeans.conf
here:
/Applications/NetBeans/NetBeans <version>.app/Contents/Resources/NetBeans/etc/netbeans.conf
In case anyone needs to know :)

- 1,180
- 10
- 12
-
3`netbeans_jdkhome="/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_144.jdk/Contents/Home"` for example – muttonUp Oct 04 '17 at 15:02
open etc folder in netbeans folder then edit the netbeans.conf with notepad and you will find a line like this :
Default location of JDK, can be overridden by using --jdkhome :
netbeans_jdkhome="G:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_13"
here you can set your jdk version.

- 4,881
- 9
- 33
- 44
on Fedora it is currently impossible to set a new jdk-HOME to some sdk. They designed it such that it will always break. Try --jdkhome [whatever] but in all likelihood it will break and show some cryptic nonsensical error message as usual.

- 4,445
- 1
- 7
- 8
Either change the jdk home in the application preferences or look for the application's config files.
On Mac OS X, its in a netbeans.conf
file, and look for the jdk home
value.

- 3,337
- 8
- 46
- 68

- 536
- 3
- 8
- 25