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On Windows Safari 5.1 is looking for the JVM in a completely aberrant location (i.e., where JavaFAX 1.0 used to be, before I uninstalled it). No other browser makes that mistake. How can I point it to the right location?
Safari-OTHER, Windows XP
I finally found a solution. The actual error message was that Safari could not load the JVM from
C:\PROGRA~1\Oracle\JAVAFX~1.0\bin\server\jvm.dll (which I assume is really C:\Programme\Oracle\JavaFX Runtime 1.0\etc), a path wihc as I said does not exist on my machine. Using SysInternals' Process Monitor I could see that WebKit was looking up HKLM\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Plug-in\10.0.1\JavaHome. Now, there are 4 different Java Plug-in entries in the registry, with version numbers 1.6.0_26, 1.7.0, 10.0.0 and 10.0.1; the first three point to a JRE installation but the last one to a JavaFX 2.0 installation. So I removed the highest-numbered entry and after that Safari used the JRE associated with Java Plug-in 10.0.0 and all was well.
It is unclear to me who is the culprit here: there seems to be a bug in Java FX 2.0 but somehow the other browsers (I only checked Opera in detail) are unaffected because they look for other registry keys than this one. The Java control panel makes no mention of JavaFX and designates the JRE 1.6 as the one to use, so it seems to me that WebKit is buggy, too. Oh well.
I finally found a solution. The actual error message was that Safari could not load the JVM from
C:\PROGRA~1\Oracle\JAVAFX~1.0\bin\server\jvm.dll (which I assume is really C:\Programme\Oracle\JavaFX Runtime 1.0\etc), a path wihc as I said does not exist on my machine. Using SysInternals' Process Monitor I could see that WebKit was looking up HKLM\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Plug-in\10.0.1\JavaHome. Now, there are 4 different Java Plug-in entries in the registry, with version numbers 1.6.0_26, 1.7.0, 10.0.0 and 10.0.1; the first three point to a JRE installation but the last one to a JavaFX 2.0 installation. So I removed the highest-numbered entry and after that Safari used the JRE associated with Java Plug-in 10.0.0 and all was well.
It is unclear to me who is the culprit here: there seems to be a bug in Java FX 2.0 but somehow the other browsers (I only checked Opera in detail) are unaffected because they look for other registry keys than this one. The Java control panel makes no mention of JavaFX and designates the JRE 1.6 as the one to use, so it seems to me that WebKit is buggy, too. Oh well.
PS: This will likely break JavaFX applets, though. I haven't checked.
Olivier2011, this is a much more common problem than anyone has made it out to be, and it seems to be a problem with the way Java is registering JavaFX and with what Safari looks for when trying to use a Java version for applets.
I have made your answer much more public and searchable by reiterating it on Stack Overflow here:
Thank you for following up your question with an appropriate solution.
Java VM location on Windows
