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?

I tried to uninstall java through command prompt and it messed up my uninstaller. So i manually deleted the folder and deleted the registrys pertaining to it. I rebooted and reinstalled Java after that and it worked fine until my next reboot. — gFu, Jun 15 '11 at 18:02
You try to reinstall after the reboot messed it up? Maybe third time's the charm — Atreys, Jun 15 '11 at 18:27
Have you tried backing up your other files and reformatting your computer? You could probably do a fresh installation of Java after that. But this method might be overkill — Atreys, Jun 15 '11 at 18:46
Somehow I solved it for my particular issue by downloading runtime even though I already had JDK installed. I leave this here in case that actually works for anyone else. — Dave, May 04 '18 at 23:20

score 237 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 10 '20 at 14:00

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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.

edited Jan 10 '20 at 14:00

A Jar of Clay

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answered Sep 15 '11 at 03:48

Baha

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After removing the "java" executables from my system32 folder, I had to reinstall the JRE. After that, my problem was solved. Thanks for the starting point. – dangowans Dec 24 '13 at 18:31
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After a security patch installation, I was not able to open eclipse because of this error. Thanks alot! Your solution worked. But I wonder what is the real reason here. – pnv Apr 09 '15 at 00:53
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Worked for me ! Thank you ! Also had to reinstall the JRE. – kbonnelly Jan 26 '16 at 01:08
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Can you please tell me what is the effect of these files in system32 folder ? – Rabia Naz khan Jul 12 '16 at 05:50
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run "where java" to see the location of the executable files mentioned above. Mine where on C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Oracle\Java\javapath – Charis Moutafidis Apr 17 '20 at 22:20

score 96 · Answer 2 · answered May 16 '18 at 04:29

96

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

answered May 16 '18 at 04:29

Shuvankar Paul

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Alternatively, remove `C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath` from Windows `Path` environment variable – Gediminas Rimsa Nov 25 '18 at 13:08
@GediminasRimsa, i am not sure this path environment variable will present in every case. But thanks for the comment. – Shuvankar Paul Nov 25 '18 at 17:12
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I removed the path from the environmental variables but still had to remove the Oracle folder from the ProgramData folder to get it to work. – Irena Rich Jun 25 '19 at 01:09
@GediminasRimsa I actually Had to remove the environment Variable after deleting the Oracle Folder in my ProgramData – Alyosha_Karamazov Jul 10 '19 at 20:34

Tilman Hausherr · Answer 3 · 2021-08-31T12:12:55.953

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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/ .

edited Aug 31 '21 at 12:12

answered Oct 24 '11 at 10:56

Tilman Hausherr

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Regretfully, this didn't work for us on Windows Server 2016. We continue to get "the specified module could not be found" – Praxiteles Jul 19 '18 at 10:08
Sorry to hear that... try all the other solutions, search for the error message... and if you'll find a solution, please share it here, or create a new question. However... "the specified module could not be found" isn't the error message that was discussed in the original question. – Tilman Hausherr Jul 19 '18 at 10:42
As of August 2021 http://raproducts.org/wordpress/ just forwards to random clickbait and malware sites. – Daz Aug 31 '21 at 12:06
@Daz thank you, I have found where the product is now. Can't believe I wrote this almost ten years ago. Don't know if it still works. – Tilman Hausherr Aug 31 '21 at 12:14

shikha singh · Answer 4 · 2019-09-18T10:39:11.720

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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 :)

edited Sep 18 '19 at 10:39

answered Sep 18 '19 at 10:34

shikha singh

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score 6 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 30 '15 at 18:46

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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

edited Jan 30 '15 at 18:46

Ram

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answered Jan 30 '15 at 18:04

user3740684

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This is just a copy of the accepted answer??? – Zoomzoom Jan 13 '23 at 15:47

score 6 · Answer 6 · edited Sep 19 '18 at 16:45

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There are 3 locations to check

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

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

edited Sep 19 '18 at 16:45

Tobias Theel

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answered Sep 19 '18 at 15:51

Marcin Piaskowski

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score 6 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 13 '18 at 19:54

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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.

answered Dec 13 '18 at 19:54

joe_the_third

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I had to do this but I didn't need to reinstall anything. Deleting the exes fixed the problem – Callat Feb 20 '19 at 08:36
It's fixed in windows 8 after deleteing those files – poovaraj Dec 22 '19 at 04:12

score 2 · Answer 8 · edited Nov 27 '18 at 16:12

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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)

edited Nov 27 '18 at 16:12

Happypig375

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answered Nov 27 '18 at 15:04

i-mir

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Your solution the only one that worked for me. Thank you. – Avv Oct 20 '21 at 23:09

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered May 29 '14 at 16:23

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.

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Aug 16 '16 at 16:36

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.

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Nov 03 '15 at 11:52

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

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

answered Nov 03 '15 at 11:52

zut

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score 0 · Answer 12 · edited Nov 17 '15 at 13:06

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Uninstall Java (via Control Panel / Programs and Features)

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

edited Nov 17 '15 at 13:06

Prafulla Kumar Sahu

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answered Nov 17 '15 at 11:54

dapx

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score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Dec 28 '18 at 20:36

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.

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Jul 19 '20 at 08:35

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:

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

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Jan 12 '21 at 07:55

0

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

answered Jan 12 '21 at 07:55

Ramesh Bathini

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score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Sep 11 '21 at 12:22

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.

Java Error opening registry key

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