[wpkg-users] Java 8 on Win64 - the saga continues...

[Rainer Meier]

Hi Frank,

On 28.01.2016 21:52, Frank Morawietz wrote:
> Well, it seems to be consent that the installation using the MSI package
> it the preferred way. Does this work the same on Win 8 and on older
> versions of Windows?

The MSI works on all supported Windows versions (including XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 
10).


> Is there an explanation of the possible parameters available?

Standard MSI parameters + some Oracle-specific ones to exclude the browser 
plugin etc.


> Since Oracle does not provide this package for download to ordinary
> users: Do I have to manually extract it from the Offline installer .exe
> file? I noticed that it was extracted into
> C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\LocalLow\Oracle\Java\jre1.${VERSION}\
>   during installation. Is there a way to extract this automatically? Or
> do I have to start and abort the installation with the exe file just to
> get the MSI package?

I don't think there is an automated way to do it. I usually launch a file 
manager like FreeCommander with admin privileges, then launch the Java 
installer, grab the MSI installer from %LocalAppData%\..\LocalLow\Oracle and 
then cancel the installer. Launching the file manager with admini privileges 
removes the need of having to accept the UAC prompt on each installer launch.

As this seems to be recurring issue I am sharing my script-solution here again:

<https://www.dropbox.com/s/z7blmtkfba2vnk3/JavaSE.zip?dl=0>

It supports Java 6, 7 and 8 currently in both JDK and JRE editions in its 32-bit 
and 64-bit variants. Each version can be deployed independently.

If there is a new Java release just download it, extract MSI and place it to the 
jdk* and/or jre* folders. Then update the "general-versions.cmd" to match the 
new version.
NOTE: For JRE older than Java 8 there is a bug in the MSI which makes it fail if 
it's named jre-<version>.msi. So you need to rename the MSI to "jre.msi"! You 
have been warned. Though you should not deploy Java older than version 8 any more.

In setting.cmd you can select then easily what should be deployed.
You can also select which versions should be explicitly uninstalled and whether 
the WEB Plugin shouold be enabled or ont (default is not to do so) as well as 
the security level. You can also chose there whether you like to deploy 32-bit 
and 64-bit editions on 64-bit systems.

If you support multiple sites/customers you might create settings-<customer>.cmd 
as well while <customer> can be set on WPKG level using WPKG_PROFILE environment 
variable.

It also allows you to place machine-local settings in 
%ProgramFiles%\Java\settings.cmd. But honestly I never used this feature.

A WPKG receipe is included as well (JRE.xml).

Enjoy!

Rainer