One of the more frustrating things about Eclipse–at least for some users–is that Eclipse doesn’t come with a Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Since Eclipse is itself a Java application, it needs a JRE to run. The intellectual property rules at Eclipse prevent us from including a JRE with the downloads, so you have to go and install one yourself.

If you try to run Eclipse without having first installed a JRE, you’ll see a message like this:
 
 
 
 
 
👁 jreneeded

The new installer provides a little more help. If you try to launch the installer without having first installed a JRE, you’ll see something like this:

👁 jreneeded2

If you click “Yes”, a dialog box will open inviting to you locate a JRE (this would be the right option to use if you know that you have a JRE installed, but it isn’t on the class path).

If you click “No”, your browser will open with some handy links to help you install a JRE:

👁 jrepage

The list includes both JRE and Java Development Kit (JDK) links. If you’re using Eclipse to do Java development and just want things to work “out of the box”, install a JDK. More advanced users can configure JDKs in the preferences.