Friday, April 26, 2013

No auto-update for 64 bit Java on Windows

It's hard to believe after all these years, and all the security issues, that there's still no auto-update for 64 bit Java on Windows.

I have known that Java on my Windows machine wasn't updating properly, but I just assumed it was because I had multiple copies and versions etc. But it's a hassle having to remember to manually download and install updates so finally I decided to try to fix it, only to discover there is no fix.

This was entered as a bug in 2006, and it's currently scheduled to be fixed in Java 8 (!)

Sometimes you really have to wonder about how these things get prioritized. Granted, our customers say the same thing about us, but considering what a security issue this is, I would have thought it would get addressed. Back in 2006 I can see thinking "no one" was running 64 bit, but nowadays that's not a good assumption.