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Enhancement
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Resolution: Won't Fix
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P4
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13.0.1
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x86_64
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windows_10
ADDITIONAL SYSTEM INFORMATION :
Windows 10 old build, Open JDK 13
A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
When searching for an OpenJDK implementation as a Windows user - which is supposed to also include the JRE support, the only download page is https://jdk.java.net/13/ which includes a zip file. A user can optionally add the PATH and JAVA_HOME, but it's absolutely unfeasible to expect any "average" user to go tweak registry entries and delete old entries etc. just to create a .jar association. Just look at the top google results: there's almost no practical solution:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8511063/how-to-run-jar-file-by-double-click-on-windows-7-64-bit
https://superuser.com/questions/1285282/how-to-repair-a-broken-jar-association-in-windows-10
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/cannot-associate-jar-files-with-java-on-windows-10/2dcb6847-4388-4030-a244-70bc14356fe3
"Jar file associations can be extremely hard to fix, this is a known issue Click the link below to download a tiny utility that does not need to be installed..."
I believe a third party tool is always a HUGE SECURITY RISK without exception, and that's even an understatement.
Basically, the .jar support IS SUPPOSED to be a default way to run "Java apps". I don't know of any other, more standard way, to distribute apps. And the users should never be assumed to be confident in command line - but FFS, why do new issues with this keep appearing even in 2019? Java is getting more user-unfriendly every day. I mean, if you can't create any official technique to associate a JAR file, please, just distribute a simple wrapper that does the "-jar" switch. There is a HUGE DIFFERENCE between teaching a user to:
1. Use the built-in windows association tool (which, as is seriously funny, by default directs a user to a MS Store, which has zero solutions to this issue) and automatically open the jar in some kind of javajar.exe
2. Tell him to go clean his registry entries, then assoc .jar=jarfile and ftype jarfile="C:\path\to\your\javaw.exe" -jar "%1" %* etc.
Last time I even noticed some old issue like https://github.com/ojdkbuild/ojdkbuild/issues/33 where someone said "But the feature for double-clicking the JARs sounds like a nice <b>optional</b> feature." Seriously, do we still consider that optional in 2018? Please, do some User Experience training for your employees and go see how average users use your product. And don't make your "user-facing documentation" rely on stackoverflow posts, which are outdated and mostly don't even work. Consumers of apps shouldn't double-click a jar, notice nothing happens, assume the app DOES work, open a console and do some magical -jar switch, fixing the PATH along the way.
And no, I am not talking only about JRE consumers. JDK consumers should also have the same user-friendly experience! Your learning curve (for example for beginner game developers) is sick.
Thanks, I hope you will spend some time to solve this issue :) I honestly believe this will directly affect millions of users in the future. Even if the issue cannot be "solved", you should really put some optional installation guidelines NEAR every JDK link :) There are more newbies than you think.
Windows 10 old build, Open JDK 13
A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
When searching for an OpenJDK implementation as a Windows user - which is supposed to also include the JRE support, the only download page is https://jdk.java.net/13/ which includes a zip file. A user can optionally add the PATH and JAVA_HOME, but it's absolutely unfeasible to expect any "average" user to go tweak registry entries and delete old entries etc. just to create a .jar association. Just look at the top google results: there's almost no practical solution:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8511063/how-to-run-jar-file-by-double-click-on-windows-7-64-bit
https://superuser.com/questions/1285282/how-to-repair-a-broken-jar-association-in-windows-10
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/cannot-associate-jar-files-with-java-on-windows-10/2dcb6847-4388-4030-a244-70bc14356fe3
"Jar file associations can be extremely hard to fix, this is a known issue Click the link below to download a tiny utility that does not need to be installed..."
I believe a third party tool is always a HUGE SECURITY RISK without exception, and that's even an understatement.
Basically, the .jar support IS SUPPOSED to be a default way to run "Java apps". I don't know of any other, more standard way, to distribute apps. And the users should never be assumed to be confident in command line - but FFS, why do new issues with this keep appearing even in 2019? Java is getting more user-unfriendly every day. I mean, if you can't create any official technique to associate a JAR file, please, just distribute a simple wrapper that does the "-jar" switch. There is a HUGE DIFFERENCE between teaching a user to:
1. Use the built-in windows association tool (which, as is seriously funny, by default directs a user to a MS Store, which has zero solutions to this issue) and automatically open the jar in some kind of javajar.exe
2. Tell him to go clean his registry entries, then assoc .jar=jarfile and ftype jarfile="C:\path\to\your\javaw.exe" -jar "%1" %* etc.
Last time I even noticed some old issue like https://github.com/ojdkbuild/ojdkbuild/issues/33 where someone said "But the feature for double-clicking the JARs sounds like a nice <b>optional</b> feature." Seriously, do we still consider that optional in 2018? Please, do some User Experience training for your employees and go see how average users use your product. And don't make your "user-facing documentation" rely on stackoverflow posts, which are outdated and mostly don't even work. Consumers of apps shouldn't double-click a jar, notice nothing happens, assume the app DOES work, open a console and do some magical -jar switch, fixing the PATH along the way.
And no, I am not talking only about JRE consumers. JDK consumers should also have the same user-friendly experience! Your learning curve (for example for beginner game developers) is sick.
Thanks, I hope you will spend some time to solve this issue :) I honestly believe this will directly affect millions of users in the future. Even if the issue cannot be "solved", you should really put some optional installation guidelines NEAR every JDK link :) There are more newbies than you think.