Minecraft mod development with Forge on Windows 10: Setting up the Java Development Kit

 

I’ve been studying Java again lately and decided to look into doing a Minecraft mod as more practice.

I’m currently running Windows 10 x64 RTM + latest updates (v1511 build 10586.420).

I started following the Getting Started guide in the Forge Documentation and once I got to Step 4 had some issues, so this first post is what I had to do to get the gradlew setupDecompWorkspace step working:

Install the latest JDK

I installed the latest JDK (JDK 8 update 91) via Ninite, and uninstalled any older versions.

Sidenote:

Ninite allows you select one or more application and download a tiny installer for the selected software, which when run always installs the latest version(s) with no annoying dialogs, etc. Highly recommended for anything they support.

Set the JAVA_HOME variable

Hit Start, start typing ‘environment’ or ‘variables’. It should show you “Edit the system environment variables” after 3 letters or so, click on that.

Then click on “Environment Variables…” button on the bottom right of the dialog that comes up.

Look for a Variable named JAVA_HOME in the top and bottom panes. If one exists, make sure the path points to your JDK install directory (not including /bin at the end). E.g. today mine looks like:

C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_91

If you don’t see one, create a new one in either the top or bottom pane and make sure the value points to your JDK directory, same as above.

Continue with the Forge Documentation

Then I continued to follow the official guide here.