Compatibility of Microsoft JVM and Sun JVM

Transition from Microsoft JVM to Sun JVM

The settlement of a legal dispute between Microsoft and Sun has as a consequence that Microsoft is removing its own Java virtual machine (JVM) from all its products until September 2004. Therefore new installations of MS-Windows will not include the Microsoft JVM and Microsoft is also phasing out the update support of existing Microsoft JVMs. Read details.

Added August 2004: Microsoft and Sun have agreed to extend Microsoft's license to support the MSJVM until December 31, 2007.

Impact for Users of JavaView:

1. Users of JavaView applets are advised to install the Sun Java virtual machine in some near future. This will ensure that all JavaView applets will continue to run inside their web browser.
2. Users of the JavaView application javaview.exe must change in some near future to the use of the batch file bin\javaview.bat included in every JavaView distribution. The batch file invokes the JavaView application using Sun JVM which must be installed independently.

Cancelled Support of Microsoft CAB Files in JavaView v3.0

JavaView no longer supports and distributes CAB files as Microsoft no longer supports its Java virtual machine, see the previous sections. CAB files were an alternative to JAR archives used by MS Internet Explorer in applets.

Impact for Authors of JavaView Applets:

1. Remove all *.cab file from your JavaView installation <JavaView>\jars\*.cab since these files are not updated when installing a new release of JavaView 3.0 and higher.
2. Remove <param> tags referencing JavaView *.cab files such as

   <param name="cabbase" value="jars/javaview.cab">
   
   <param name="cabbase" value="jars/jv_lite.cab">

   from all your own applets including applets you derived from JavaView tutorial applets. Otherwise Internet Explorer will still search for the *.cab archives and fail to load, even if *.jar archives are specified in the same applet tag.