ADDITIONAL SYSTEM INFORMATION :
Unpacked on windows

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
The Oracle archives for server-jre-8u171-windows-x64.tar.gz and server-jre-8u172-windows-x64.tar.gz miss jre/bin/javaw.exe and jre/bin/jabswitch.exe. Both files have been shipped with the previous update and there is no mentioning of this incompatible change in the release notes.

BTW: i also noticed that bin/java.exe and jre/bin/java.exe launcher binaries actually differ in content:

25abe76ac5961f65e4e4a26673dde367 /mnt/c/temp/jdk1.8.0_171/bin/java-rmi.exe
eb7039e11119914d2a71e398f0ba5e11 /mnt/c/temp/jdk1.8.0_171/jre/bin/java-rmi.exe
3b60979092749a75ae788f250c5cf2b1 /mnt/c/temp/jdk1.8.0_171/bin/java.exe
c9ad1244d33b412bfe75f98a45052241 /mnt/c/temp/jdk1.8.0_171/jre/bin/java.exe


REGRESSION : Last worked in version 8u162

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
unpack server-jre-8u171-windows-x64.tar.gz and start jre/bin/javaw.exe

EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
command executes
ACTUAL -
command is missing

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
copy executable from JDK which might be a licensing problem. Using java.exe instead of javaw.exe is not an option because it opens up additional console windows.

FREQUENCY : always