What you should see when Java runs

Another update: While Java is still working for me, other people have resolved their problem below.  Read the comments for a solution.

Update: I still get hits to this post.  Java works on my Vista 64 installation for both Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3.

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I can’t get Java to run from a web browser in Vista 64 bit version.

I had to take an unplanned day off Friday. The day before I had gotten my remote access key fob so I figured I’d try using the browser based remote access into work.

I was in for a surprise. Like many solutions, work’s remote access relies on Java running in a browser. I had not yet needed Java in the months that I installed Vista 64 bit so I had to install it.

On Firefox (a 32 bit app) it kept dying when I tried to install it. On Internet Explorer 7 (also a 32 bit app) it looked like it was working but the browser would hang when I tried to reload it. Once I thought I had it installed but Internet Explorer 7 kept hanging and Firefox would just close whenever I hit a page with Java in it.

Looking this up using Google was kind of helpful but it just confirmed that I could probably get the 64 bit version running independently for stand alone apps like Azureus but being able to run it in a browser was not going to happen.

I’m going to re-install the 64 bit Java run time and try the web site in 64 bit Internet Explorer 7 (yes, they have a seperate executable and shortcut for the 64 bit browser) but I don’t think this will work due to changes in Internet Explorer.

This morning I used Synaptic and installed the sun-java packages for version 5. Remote access worked fine in Ubuntu. How ironic is that when Citrix Metaframe runs on Ubuntu but not on a Microsoft operating system?