Installer Ignores Java 8

[gudenau]

I have Java 8 installed and the installer refuses to launch, citing that I need Java 8 installed.

[jrbudda]

is your java set up properly as an environment variable? i.e. can you run java -version from anywhere, not just the directory the .exe is already in?

[gudenau]

That is setup to use the latest, which at the time of this comment is Java 14.

[gudenau]

Setting JAVA_HOME in CMD then running the installer from CMD does not work either.

[TheTrueForce]

Java 14 probably isn't compatible with something built against 8. (why are you using 14 anyway? Minecraft doesn't run under 9+.)
You'll need to either change the environment variables to point at the java 8 installation, or explicitly run the installer using java 8.

[gudenau]

I tried to run the installer with Java 8 set in the environment variables and it still did not work. Plus Minecraft is not the only thing that uses Java. It is my primary programming language and keeping up to date with it is important.

[TheTrueForce]

Minecraft uses its own captive install that is unavailable to the rest of the system.
Did you reboot after you changed that env var? They usually don't take effect immediately.

[gudenau]

If you change the environment in a program (such as cmd.exe) and it spawns a child the modified environment can be passed to that child.

So no reboot needed to change the environment when launching stuff from cmd, assuming the program is checking environment variables.

[TheTrueForce]

Are you running the installer with java, or just running the installer?
The installer is a jar that's been put through launch4j so people don't try to use it as if it's a Forge mod.
I'm not sure if that'll make a difference, but I think it'd be worth a try.

[gudenau]

I am trying to run the installer as PE.

[TheTrueForce]

Say what now?

[TheTrueForce]

What is "starting as PE"? I have never heard that phrase before. In the context of Minecraft, PE means Pocket Edition, but that's the only instance of that initialism I'm aware of.

[gudenau]

PE is the current format of Windows executables.

[gudenau]

So running with java -jar does work, that is the opposite of intuitive.

[TheTrueForce]

So you were running the installer straight. Why didn't you just say that instead of making an obscure reference?
As to the intuitiveness of running it with java, it's not supposed to be. Forge mods come as jars. People see a jar and just default to Forge mod. Turning the jar into an exe using launch4j is intended to prevent this.

And under normal circumstances, it just works.

[slmcrs]

I'm guessing this has to to with using a non oracle based java, as I had this issue and I am currently using openjdk as well. Instructions should probably be updated to run via java -jar when using other java builds.