FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
JRE 7 update 51

ADDITIONAL OS VERSION INFORMATION :
Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 x86
Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 x64

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
When Java is installed and it is upgraded with silent flags (/s) ( for example: JRE 7u21 to JRE 7u51), if Java or a Java applet is running during the deployment, the upgrade will result in a non-functional Java installation.In this scenario, a reboot will be forced. However, when the system comes back up the install will be corrupted and Java is no longer functional. The install will be missing required files and java.exe will return errors when launched. Usually, the missing files are in the jre7/lib directory. It seems that the installer detects that there are locked files during the upgrade and initiates a reboot as a result. Unfortunately, after the reboot, the required files that were locked are not copied to their proper locations. It would be great if this could be fixed in the installer.


STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
1. Install a previous version of JRE. For example, JRE 7 Update 21.
2. Start a Java applet.
3. Make sure the Java applet is running and run the JRE 7 Update 51 installer to update Java. The install should be run in silent mode with the /s flag set.

EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
The system would reboot with a properly updated version of Java
ACTUAL -
The java install is corrupted and required files in the jre/lib folder seem to be missing. The installer did not copy the required files after reboot.

ERROR MESSAGES/STACK TRACES THAT OCCUR :
When attempting to execute java.exe
Error: could not open `c:\Program Files\Java\jre7\lib\i386\jvm.cfg'

REPRODUCIBILITY :
This bug can be reproduced always.

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
We have written some code to properly check if any file locks exist in the Java before deploying the update.