Java SE (Java Platform, Standard Edition)

Here's what I do to get around this:

1. Close the installer when you see Java error 1603.  (It has installed a bunch of files, but exits prematurely.)
2. Open javacpl.exe from C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.8.0_XX\bin (or for x64, C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_XX\bin) where XX is the update number.
3. Uncheck "Enable Java content in the browser" on security tab and click OK to close Java control panel
4. Retry installing Java.  It usually succeeds for me this time.
5. Open javacpl.exe again (see step #2)
6. Check Enable Java content in browser on security tab and click OK to close Java control panel
7. If it still fails, try uninstalling windows update KB2918614, then reboot and try these steps again.

Usually I do not have to mess with step 7.  I have to do this on EVERY system I install Java on at one of my clients.  The systems I'm working on are on a domain and I'm in the domain Administrator account during installation.  All fully up to date Win 7 x64 systems with latest windows updates.  This is very annoying, and I sure hope Oracle fixes this very soon.

Its been two weeks of searching and trying (not full time searching).  This finally did it!!

Here is how I got it to work:

Install Java 32Bit and let it fail.

Uncheck the "Enable Java Content..."

Install Java 32Bit.

Check the "Enable Jave Content..."

Install Java 64Bit and let it fail.

Uncheck the "Enable Java Content..."

Install Java 64Bit.

Finally Check the "Enable Java Content..."

This is still failing in the same manner with the latest JRE 8u45.  Same workaround works, but having to maintain this on 20 computers is a pain.  Is anyone from Oracle going to ever fix this?

This is really surprising that the issue is not fixed so far....

Thanks Andrew so much for your help!

uninstalling windows update KB2918614, then reboot totally worked for me.

Hi, I'm having the same issue listed here, or at least similar.  While I get the error 1603 message when trying to install, I can't follow the steps posted by Andrew because javacpl.exe just refuses to do anything when I try to open it.  Anyone have a suggestion?  Thanks.

I've spent most of this morning trying to resolve this problem, I have two small embedded PC's running Windows 7 embedded.  I installed JRK 8u60 and JRE 8u60 on the first PC without issue, however on the 2nd PC I kepted getting the 1603 error.

I tried just about everything, however in the end for me, it turned out the these systems were low on memory, on the system that worked I have virtual memory set-up, but on the system that didn't install it had no virtual memory set-up.

I then edited the set-up, setting the virtual memory to initially 4096, with an upper limit of 16384.  Tried the install again and it worked without any errors, from what I've read it would seem that the error code 1603 can be caused by lots of different reasons, but for me it was low resources.

Hope this helps.

Andrew that worked like a charm. You are the man! What a stupid problem to have. No wonder Google removed Java support from Chrome.

I had to disable McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.8 on-access scanning. This allowed the Java JRE 8 install to complete. See java update did not complete error code 1603 windows

I completely removed Java, all it's folder, it's registry entries, literally everything about it and still got the 1603 error.

I fixed it by removing the "_JAVA_OPTIONS" environment variable, which gets installed by some Java debugging programs.

Big huge thanks for the post...

Removing the one you stated and "IBM_JAVA_OPTIONS" resolved my issue.

I tried EVERYTHING else with no luck.

Hi,

I found a solution after bashing my head all day. I did the KB291xxxx removal, completely clean installs over and over without luck. I came across this answer in one of the Error 1603 archives on this blog:

>

I have been facing this issue for several months. Luckily it hasn't been critical to my work - more of a nagging annoyance. I tried all the different solutions offered across the Web without success. Then finally I stumbled on a solution that worked for me. I haven't seen it suggested anywhere else so I thought I had better sign up for an Oracle account so I can post here. I expect it is rather unique but just in case it helps anyone else...

Looking at the log generated by user4854254 suggestion here: https://community.oracle.com/message/12752525#12752525 I noticed that the evocation of cmd.exe was generating an error message. The cause was a long forgotten AutoRun command specified in my Windows' registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun

I deleted the AutoRun entry and everything worked: 32bit, 64bit, jdk

I should add that this is on Win 8.1 but I expect it would be the same result on Win 7.

Bob

>

My AutoRun entry has some auto update string for Internet Explorer in it, so I deleted the string entry not the AutoRun key itself and BINGO!... jre-8u72-windows-x64.exe installed and completed. Hopefully someone can use this.

Robert

I was able to get past this error code on Win 7 64-bit by completely uninstalling all versions of Java, deleting any folders left behind, then backing up the registry and running CCleaner on the registry, rebooted and newest Java software installed normally.

Worth a shot

I had the same issue with version 8.0.77 . I had to deploy it to over 4600 computers and more than half of them have been failing with this error. When you run MSI installers (extracted from off-line installer by running it and copying file from "C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\LocalLow\Oracle\Java\..." ) using SYSTEM account - it fails with error 1603 (from the log file).   Executable ( .exe) was failing with Engine error 3.

To fix it I had to:

• Create  java.settings.cfg file with my desired settings
• Created "C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\" folder
• Copy that java.settings.cfg file to "C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java"

After that I was able to run  .msi installer with reference to that INSTALLCFG file.

I deployed that install with program (starting powershell script bellow) , executed from SCCM package.

#Install new version of Java 8.0.77

        $ExecDirectory = Split-Path -Path $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition -Parent   # Detects path where the script is executed from.

        #Clean and Creating Log file directory

        Remove-Item -Path C:\Windows\CCM\Logs\Java_Install\ -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | out-null

        Remove-Item -Path C:\Temp\Java\ -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | out-null

        New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path C:\Windows\CCM\Logs\Java_Install\ -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Out-Null

        New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path C:\Temp\Java\ -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Out-Null

        Copy-Item -Path $ExecDirectory\*.msi -Destination C:\Temp\Java\ -Force

        #Pre-populate config directory. Without this directory install will fail with error 1603

        New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\ -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Out-Null

        Copy-Item -Path $ExecDirectory\java.settings.cfg -Destination C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\ -Force

        Start-Process msiexec -PassThru  -Wait -ArgumentList "/i C:\Temp\Java\jre1.8.0_77-windows-i586.msi INSTALLCFG=C:\Temp\Java\java.settings.cfg /qn /L*v C:\Windows\CCM\Logs\Java_Install\jre8.0_77_Installx86.log"

    #Installaling x64 versions of Java on 64bit version of OS

        If (Test-Path -Path C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ )

      { Start-Process msiexec -PassThru -Wait -ArgumentList "/i C:\Temp\Java\jre1.8.0_77-windows-x64.msi INSTALLCFG=C:\Temp\Java\java.settings.cfg /qn /L*v C:\Windows\CCM\Logs\Java_Install\jre8.0_77_Installx64.log"

      } 

    # End of New version installation 

      #Removing software installation directories...

       Remove-Item -Path C:\Temp\Java -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | out-null

# Done

I found that the JRE is installed anyway.  I just had to point to the right location in my cmd file.  Others may need to update environment variables and classpaths etc