I read Woody Leonhard's article in InfoWorld on the dangers of Java yesterday, so I uninstalled the two JRE's on my Windows 7 computer, and then reinstalled the latest version.
This is what I have now:
C:\Users\David>java -version
java version "1.7.0_11"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_11-b21)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 23.6-b04, mixed mode, sharing)
Then I tried to run the Force.com IDE, and it would not even start, complaining that it could not find Java.
So I removed all of the Force.com IDE, and tried a fresh install, using the 32-bit version installed by Pulse.
It went its merry way, but then it stopped as soon as it tried to start. I got the informative message JVM terminated. Exit code -1.
I found a note about changing a line in the forceide.ini
The factory version was:
utf8 (do not remove)
-startup
../Common/plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.200.v20090520.jar
–launcher.library
../Common/plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86_1.0.200.v20090519
-Xms40m
-Xmx256m
-install
C:\Users\David\AppData\Local\salesforce.com\Force.com IDE
-configuration
C:\Users\David\AppData\Local\salesforce.com\Force.com IDE\configuration
-vmargs
-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8
-Xms256m
-Xmx1024m
-XX:PermSize=128M
-XX:MaxPermSize=512M
I changed the last line to -XX:MaxPermSize=256M, and Eclipse started, sort of.
Now it hangs with the text on the left saying Eclipse Provisioning. But nothing with the Force.com IDE is there.
My Force.com IDE is loaded in c:\Users\David\AppsData\Local\Salesforce.com\force.com IDE.
My Java is loaded in c:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin
Anyone have any ideas.
Best Answer
Mark Pond is correct that you need to be running java 6 but you do not need to remove java 7 from your machine. Just download the java 6 JRE and add a line to the ini file to manually set your java VM. This way it won't get messed up again if you ever switch java versions on your machine.
Instructions on how to add -vm argument are here.