Eclipse Neon - Disable Welcome Screen

Question

How can I disable the welcome screen in Eclipse Neon?

Although there is a similar question for Eclipse Juno, the methods suggested don't seem to work in Eclipse Neon.

One problem I detected is that I have the checkbox: always show Welcome at start up checked. If I uncheck it and restart Eclipse Neon, it remains checked again.

The same behaviour happens when I go to Help->Welcome, it seems that the checkbox is not working.

The main reason for me to disable the welcome screen is to see if I can solve a problem with Ctrol-Arrows that don't work when the the Welcome screen is shown as described in this question. So I would also appreciate if there is another solution to that problem.

I also tried to remove the line -showsplash in Eclipse.ini file but it doesn't seem to work either.

I noticed that the problem happens when I use Windows 7 only. I tried it using Windows 10 and it seems to work. So maybe, the problem is related to Windows 7.

Weir

I was able to partially solve the Ctrol-Left problem by deleting the .metadata folder in my workspace. However, the Welcome screen checkbox is still not working – Weir

Answer 1

After you uncheck the "Always show Welcome as start up" checkbox, you need to close the "Welcome" view (clicking the X in its tab). Only then can you close or restart Eclipse, which will now no longer show the "Welcome" view at startup.

Josiah

Thanks, however, I have just done those two steps in that order (1.-"uncheck Always show Welcome as start up" and 2.- Clicking the X in the Welcome tab) and after closing Eclipse and starting it again, the Welcome tab appears again... – Weir

@Weir I'm not sure it needed to be downvoted for that, as you had not mentioned that you were closing the tab; you just wrote If I uncheck it and restart Eclipse Neon, it remains checked again and if you do that the Welcome screen does show up again, it's normal, so I had to mention it. You might want to check if in the Eclipse folder (the one with eclipse.exe) there are relevant hs_err_pidNNNN.log files, and same for the .log file in the .metadata folder of your workspace. Also, if you are on Windows, try to run Eclipse as administrator to see if it's related to permissions. – Josiah

sorry for downvoting...I click downvote first, but then I changed my mind to leave it as it was, however, the system didn't let me. It only let me -1 or +1 (and I thought +1 was not right) – Weir

I have also tried what you said in your comment now, and it doesn't work either. – Weir

@Weir OK, if there are no related errors shown in those logs and running as administrator doesn't help, the only thing left that I would try in that situation is to reinstall Eclipse, possibly not in a folder under Program Files or Program Files (x86) if on Windows. I would also check the issue before installing any plugin and after each plugin installation, as some plugin might be involved. However it's a bit of shot in the dark. If you eventually find the cause and/or a solution it would be interesting if you can post that. Good luck. – Josiah

Answer 2

I also tried to remove the line -showsplash in Eclipse.ini file but it doesn't seem to work either.

-showsplash is a red herring; it controls which splash screen (by default: the Eclipse Neon logo) is shown. Deleting this line and the next (org.eclipse.platform) won’t disable the splash screen. However, adding -noSplash to your eclipse.ini (or via the Eclipse command line) will. See the Eclipse Platform help for more information.

At any rate, neither option controls the “Welcome” view you want to disable. Hence “red herring.”

Annuitant

The "noSplash" option controls the splash screen (i.e. the eclipse Neon box that appears when you start eclipse), not the Welcome page that appears inside the eclipse window on startup. – Weller

Sorry, confused. At any rate, neither option controls the “Welcome” view you want to disable. So why is this an answer ? – Josiah

Because the original poster also mentioned/asked about showsplash, which definitely will not work, as it is meant to control the splash screen rather than the Welcome view.The “Always show Welcome at start up” checkbox the original poster mentions, however, should work but apparently does not. – Annuitant

Right, indeed, this answer helped me to discard the -noSplash option so I appreciate it. Although it is not a solution, it helped me to discard a red herring. – Weir