Oracle elaborates on end of Windows XP support for Java
In a blog entry, Oracle Vice President for Product Management at Java Henrik Stahl has attempted to clarify the company's plans for support of Java on Windows XP systems.
Windows XP: The end
The blog is in response to our article and those of others referring to a low-key announcement by Oracle of the end of support for Java on Windows XP.
Stahl first dismisses any claims that "Java no longer works on Windows XP" or "Oracle will stop Java updates from being applied on Windows XP." He goes on to say that the company "...expect[s] all versions of Java that were supported prior to the Microsoft de-support announcement to continue to work on Windows XP for the foreseeable future." The "Microsoft de-support announcement" refers to Microsoft's end of support for Windows XP as of April, 2014.
While they expect Java 7 to continue to work on Windows XP, they do not commit to fixing problems on that configuration. If a customer reports a problem that "...is specific to Windows XP, Oracle is not required to (and may be unable to) issue a patch or a workaround."
Java 8, on the other hand, is not designed even to install on Windows XP. The installer for the developer releases of Java 8 will not run on it, Stahl says, "without manual intervention." According to Wikipedia this means "directly unzipping from the installation executable." Stahl says that the company may or may not fix this. Java 8 for end-users (the JRE or Java Runtime Environment) is not yet available.
In both the initial statement and Stahl's blog, the company urges users still running Windows XP to upgrade to an operating system that is currently supported.