Minecraft – Why does Minecraft get stuck downloading ‘guava-17.0.jar’

New answer, so everyone can follow the steps:

1. Open up a notepad.

2. Type the following:

   C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\java" -Xms2048M -Xmx2048M -jar "C:\minecraft.jar"

3. File -> Save as. Choose All file types, and save it like: C:\minecraft.bat

4. Get minecraft's "linux version" at http://minecraft.net. Save it to C:\minecraft.jar [This step is not necessary for jre7 running on Windows 7, you can point the script to minecraft.exe]

5. You can skip this step if you are running 32 bit windows! Get a 64-bit Java runtime. This wouldn't be a neccessary step, but since Minecraft is a resource hog, you may want to squeeze out all the juice from your computer. You can find the 64-bit version here.

6. Double-Click the minecraft.bat file.

What does the .bat file do?

• The first part tells Windows, when you double-click the .bat, it should launch Java runtime
• The second part is the -Xmx and -Xms part. These are settings for the heap size. Set these according how much memory you have. Explanation for this Heap stuff.
• The last part -jar C:\... is an argument too, telling Java where it can find the Minecraft.jar launcher.

(Also, check the C:\minecraft.jar, C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\java.exe paths. These things may vary.)

A little extra, performance improvement: (The argument part works only on Windows!)
Add the following arguments to the .bat file: "C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\java" -Dsun.java2d.noddraw=false -Dsun.java2d.d3d=true -Dsun.java2d.opengl=false -Xms2048M -Xmx2048M -jar "C:\minecraft.jar"

This way, we tell Java it should use DirectX to draw. This helped me a lot.

Another improvement can be achieved (Cross-platform!) if you install Java JRE7. It's in a beta state, but perfect for us, playing Minecraft. You only have to modify the .bat file, so it shows:
C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin\java instead of the
C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\java (Notice the number in the "jre".)

First thing's first, make sure you have Java, it doesn't have to be the latest build as on my Gaming PC i haven't updated Java since Minecraft first came out and it's been fine (apart from a notice saying i need 64-bit java for a full render distance) but it's best to get the latest build just in case, if you do have java update it, the problem could be your Java installation and an update would fix that, otherwise uninstall and reinstall java

Second, if your reinstalling Minecraft, make sure you're online, while you can play Minecraft offline that's only after you've downloaded the files, while i haven't upgraded to 1.6.2 (because i would have to regenerate the world to update it and i'm waiting on the new biomes in 1.7 before i go though that) i'm assuming you can still play it offline just by failing to login and selecting "Play Offline". if you can't connect to the internet on your computer you can just run Minecraft on a computer connected to the net to download the files and then copy your .minecraft folder onto a memory stick and transfer it to your offline computer

if you're still getting an error, redownload the Miecraft.exe, i do remember that if you was using the old launcher it wont automatically update to the newer one and you had to download the new launcher manually however that's easy to do since you can just log into your account on the website and redownload it since you are using a legitimate copy