Does the MSJVM explode on January 1st?

  • Article

Back in November I posted a gentle reminder about the end of life of the MSJVM. Since then several ISV have asked me "what actually happens on January 1st?"

The short answer is... nothing. Your applications which use the MSJVM will continue to work.

The longer (and official) answer is:

"Although the MSJVM may still function after December 31, 2007, it will not be supported. If a security issue were to arise after that date, the MSJVM may become unsafe to use. Microsoft recommends that customers who continue to use the MSJVM after December 31, 2007, lock down Internet Explorer security zones so that the MSJVM works only with trusted sites."

Related to this is whether as an ISV you will be able to continue to redistribute the MSJVM?

The short answer is ... probably.

The longer (and official) answer is:

"The End User License Agreements (EULAs) for both Microsoft Visual J++® and the Microsoft SDK for Java grant limited rights to redistribute the installer for the MSJVM (msjavx86.exe). However, Microsoft highly discourages continued redistribution of the MSJVM as provided for in these EULAs." (NB: the link after this is broke - I will try and find the right link)

For more detail check out https://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/java/faq.mspx 

But remember - please get off the MSJVM just as soon as you possibly can. Thanks...