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Microsoft Java Virtual Machine
Automatically installing or upgrading the Microsoft java virtual machine
As java developers, our opinion is that in terms of reliability and performance, the
brand of java developed by Microsoft in the late 90's was easily the best around.
The "java war" between Sun and Microsoft was won by Sun and resulted first in
the termination of further development of Microsoft's java, and subsequently in
distribution changes which ensured that Sun's inferior product would gradually
(over a number of years) replace the Microsoft product on most machines. Slowly,
but rather too slowly, the quality of Sun's rival product has also increased.
For various reasons, some people might wish to continue to use Microsoft's
brand of java. The information contained here is partly of historical significance,
but you may wish to make use of it.
Please read the liability disclaimer at the bottom of this page
- Code to put in your page
The following code checks the java version and upgrades if necessary, or installs for
the first time if there is no java.
<OBJECT
CLASSID="clsid:08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608500" WIDTH=0 HEIGHT=0
CODEBASE="http://www.yourcompany.com/MSJavX86.exe#Version=5,0,3805">
</OBJECT>
This code will, if necessary, fetch the file MSJavX86.exe from
http://www.yourcompany.com/MSJavX86.exe. You must therefore place the
file MSJavX86.exe at this location! The file is about 5 MB in size. We
can tell you where to get a copy.
- Forcing the browser to use Microsoft's VM rather than Sun's
The above code is for checking, installing and upgrading the Microsoft VM version.
However it does not determine which VM (Microsoft or Sun) is actually used.
In a fair and just world,
a web developer could theoretically choose to switch between VM's by using
an OBJECT tag and toggling the CLASSID's between 08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501
(the Microsoft VM - note the last digit is different this time) and
8AD9C840-044E-11D1-B3E9-00805F499D93 (the Sun VM). However the world is not
fair or just: Sun inserts a TREAT AS entry into the operating system keys which
hijacks Microsoft's 08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501 key and redirects it to its own
programme 8AD9C840-044E-11D1-B3E9-00805F499D93. This means a web developer is
not free to automatically determine VM preference.
There are two ways to stop the Sun VM hijacking the 08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501
key. The first is to open the system preferences, find the Sun VM options panel,
choose the browser tab, and deselect "Internet Explorer" from the list of browsers.
The second is to edit the registry directly with regedit.exe and remove the TREAT AS
entry from the 08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501 key. The latter method may be
of help to intranet administrators in a bind.
- Legal disclaimer: Image Intelligence Ltd. accepts no responsibility
or liability for any information on this page or anything a reader might do as a result
of reading this. The Microsoft VM for java is a 3rd party software application
subject to licence agreements and other requirements which you must read and agree to.
To be entitled use the code given above, you site must use java applets which were
programmed in a specific way and which take advantage of the Microsoft VM for java (if
available). We believe some of our products fulfill this criterion, so you can ensure that your
site visitors have the Microsoft VM for java if you are running our applets on your site. However
we cannot issue any assurances or guarantees that our belief is correct or that our
interpretations are valid. Nor can we accept any responsibility or liability if Microsoft's
own information was wrong and we were misled by it.
Some information contained on this page summarises information published by Microsoft
in February 2003. However you must turn directly to Microsoft for full, up-to-date or accurate information.
Nothing in this disclaimer overrides the conditions of use of this site.
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