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

Question

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

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?

Antiperiodic

On Linux there is a startup script. You could add a BAT file to set the environment variable and call the exe – Blakey

Answer 1

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

Bainmarie

I know this question was about a Windows installation, but it's not tagged windows and IDEA usually works pretty much the same on Windows and Linux. So I'll mention that on Ubuntu 16.04/Xenial setting IDEA_JDK_64 to the Java 8 JDK didn't work. IDEA failed to start, reporting Cannot start under Java <JAVA_HOME-version>: Java 1.8 or later is required. where <JAVA_HOME-version> is $JAVA_HOME . – Asphodel

However, on Ubuntu 16.04/Xenial setting IDEA_JDK to the Java 8 JDK dir (eg. /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/ ) does work. – Asphodel

Answer 2

Creating the IDEA_JDK_64 environment variable pointing to the current JDK 8 installation didn't work for me on Windows 7.

What worked was starting IDEA from its script residing in:

<your location of>\IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition 2016.1.1\bin\idea.bat

On Windows, one can map a shortcut to that location and change its icon to:

<your location of>\IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition 2016.1.1\bin\idea.ico

Consentient

this worked for me when environment variable solution didn't – Punishable

Answer 3

i found answers above a bit unclear being new to this.

your first step would be to open environment variables, search in windows.

in user variables create a new entry for IDEA_JDK_64

add the path to the JDK version you wish to use, for me it was C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-13.0.1

this should do the job.

Hephaestus

Hafiz, your solution worked for me. Thank you. – Wolff

Answer 4

first : jdk -version ?? 1.7 or 1.8 ,so change this environment variable; then : uninstall idea ;end : install idea

this is a stupid method ,but it works!

Borgerhout

because 64 --> jdk8 , so use 32 . – Borgerhout

Answer 5

Maybe you open IDEA with idea64.exe, try idea.exe.

Rant