Minecraft: Installing Forge Without Installing Java
I recently got a new computer that my son wanted to play Minecraft on. Minecraft requires the Java runtime to be installed but with it’s memory, security and updating issues Java was one headache I didn’t want to have on this new machine. Lucky for me Mojang recently created a new version of their Minecraft launcher that includes it’s own version of Java. This version is isolated in the Minecraft installation directory and does not require installing Java on it’s own.
But then my son asked me about mods. He’s always used Forge for mods but when I tried installing Forge I got an error sayin that Java must be installed to run the Forge installer. So now I was back to my original Java problem: how do I install something that requires Java without installing the Java runtime?
The answer turned out to be quite simple: leverage the version of Java that was installed with Minecraft. Here’s how to do it in Windows 10. I’m sure Mac OSX is similar. Remember that before running a Forge installer fo any version of Minecraft you must first run that version of Minecraft on your machine.
- Go to the Forge website (https://files.minecraftforge.net/) and download the .jar file for the version of Forge you want to install. This will be the version indicated by the word “Installer”. DO NOT download the “Installer-win” version. Save the file to the following directory:
C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Minecraft\\runtime\\jre-x64\\1.8.0_25\\bin
Note that your directory structure may be slightly different depending on which version of Java was included with the Minecraft installer you used. The main idea here is that the .jar file should be in the bin subdirectory of the Java install within your Mincraft installation (located in the runtime subdirectory of the install directory). - Open up a command prompt (cmd) and go to the directory you just saved the .jar file to. Using the example above this command would be as follows:
cd \\Program Files (x86)\\Minecraft\\runtime\\jre-x64\\1.8.0_25\\bin - Use the version of Java in this directory to run the Forge installer in the .jar file. To do this type the following:
java -jar forge-1.7.10-10.13.4.1614-1.7.10-installer.jar
Substitute the name of your .jar file in place of the one in this command.
This will run the Forge installer. The rest of the details of how to complete the Forge install are well documented in other places so I won’t repeat them here.
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