Java Web Start recognizes as "os" only the values "Windows, SunOS, and linux".
It considers anything a match if the value of os is either null, or the return value of Config.getOSName() starts with that string., and Config.getOSName() returns just "Windows" for any windows os. - therefore, any value in the jnlp file will match if it starts with "Windows"
However, the native core requires an exact match, so resources are only considered if they say explicitly "Windows"

Since applications may need to provide differant resources for "Windows XP",
"Windows Vista", etc, we should change behavior to match any windows platform if just "Windows" is specified, and to only match specific platform if, for example "Windows XP" is specified.
(both in native and java code, and for normal resources and for the jre.)
Java Web Start recognizes as "os" only the values "Windows, SunOS, and linux".
It considers anything a match if the value of os is either null, or the return value of Config.getOSName() starts with that string., and Config.getOSName() returns just "Windows" for any windows os. - therefore, any value in the jnlp file will match if it starts with "Windows"
However, the native core requires an exact match, so resources are only considered if they say explicitly "Windows"

Since applications may need to provide differant resources for "Windows XP",
"Windows Vista", etc, we should change behavior to match any windows platform if just "Windows" is specified, and to only match specific platform if, for example "Windows XP" is specified.
(both in native and java code, and for normal resources and for the jre.)
note - the above discription is wrong and the implementation was fixed by bug #7014170

in implementing CR6527545, we forgot another line from the JNLP spec:

    "For the os, arch, and locale attributes several keys can be specified separated with spaces. A space that is part of a key must be preceded with a backslash (\). For example, Windows\ 95 Windows\ 98 specifies the two keys Windows 95 and Windows 98. "