Instalation of JAVA 2SDK on windows XP

Question

I am begenning to study the language JAVA, I copy a free version on a repertory C:\Documents and Settings\Propri�taire\Mes documents and in this repertory create my first programm. Under MS-DOS I tried the command JAVAC program.java ... "javac is neither recognized as an internal or external command ". Can you help me ?

Answer 1

Hello YMOUCHEL,
The two most common installation problems are setting the PATH and CLASSPATH environmental variables. You are having trouble with your PATH environmental variable. Permanently setting the PATH environmental variable allows convenient access to all the Java Virtual Machine and all Java 2 SDK executable programs. While setting the PATH environmental variable is not strictly required, it is highly recommend and widely used in practice. If you don't set the PATH environmental variable, you need to specify the full path to the executable every time you run it. It's useful to set the PATH environmental variable permanently so it will persist after rebooting.
I'm not quite sure where you have installed the J2SDK, but it is typically installed on the C:\ drive in a folder called C:\j2sdk1.4.0 or something similar.
The error that you are reporting:
C:\>javac
The name specified is not recognized as an
internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
means that the Operating System cannot find the 'java' command; you need to tell the Operating System where to find the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and Java tools.
You don't necessarily need to set PATH and CLASSPATH environment variables, you can always include the full directory path in each command explicitly. The problem arises when users want to run the Java 2 SDK executables (javac.exe, java.exe, javadoc.exe, etc.) from any directory without having to type the full directory path of the command.
On a Windows platform you will need to open a DOS command line window. Assuming that you installed J2SDK 1.4.0 on your C: drive in a folder called j2sdk1.4.0, then you could run the 'java' command like this:
C:\>C:\j2sdk1.4.0\bin\java -version
This explicitly points to the Java 2 SDK executable, java.exe, in the bin directory of J2SDK 1.4.0 installation on drive C:.
To permanently set PATH environment variable on Windows/XP:
1. Choose Start, Control Panel, and double-click System properties icon.
2. Select the Advanced tab and then Environment Variables button.
3. Look for "Path" in the User Variables and System Variables.
4. Add the path to the right end of the "Path" in the System Variables.
The path for the previous example would be:
C:\j2sdk1.4.0\bin
The PATH environment variable on Windows is not case sensitive. The PATH can be a series of directories separated by semi-colons (;). Click "Set", "Apply" and "OK".
Click http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4/jre/install-windows.html for more information on Windows XP installation of JavaTM 2 SDK, Standard Edition Version 1.4.x .
-Merwyn,
Developer Technical Support,
http://www.sun.com/developers/support.