javawindowsintellij-idea-2016

IntelliJ IDEA 2016.1(64) : Unsupported java version Cannot start under Java 1.7.0_79-b15: Java 1.8 or later is required

Currently I set JAVA_HOME environment variable to 1.7

When I try to open the file idea64.exe (path : ..\JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA 2016.1\bin\idea64.exe) below error is populated

enter image description here

Unsupported java version
Cannot start under Java 1.7.0_79-b15: Java 1.8 or later is required.

From the above error I understood that I have to set my JAVA_HOME to 1.8, but I don't want to set JAVA_HOME to 1.8.

I believe there should be a configuration file where in I can point to Java-8 and fix this, can anyone please let me know where can I do the configuration changes?

Solution

  • You should create IDEA_JDK_64 environment variable and set its value to JDK8 instance location on your computer.

    This JDK8 instance can be used only for idea and JAVA_HOME can point to the Java 7 at the same time without any problems.

    Via documentation:

    idea64.exe uses this JDK search sequence:

    • IDEA_JDK_64 environment variable
    • ..\jre64 directory
    • system Registry
    • JDK_HOME environment variable
    • JAVA_HOME environment variable