org.omg.CORBA.ORB specifies the search order to locate an ORB's orb.properties file, and this includes searching ${java.home}/lib. The JDK 9 release will include a ${java.home}/conf directory as the location for properties files. As such, the ORB.init processing has been amended, to include ${java.home}/conf directory in its search path for an orb.properties file. Thus, the preferred approach is to use the ${java.home}/conf directory, in preference to the ${java.home}/lib directory, as a location for an orb.properties file.