Difference Between java and javaw Commands from JDK (original) (raw)

The difference between java.exe and javaw.exe commands was the recent java question asked to one of my friends. while running a java program on windows you might have noticed that they will appear in the task manager as either java.exe or javaw.exe, also in JAVA_HOME/bin we see these two java commands java.exe and javaw.exe, do you know the difference between java.exe and javaw.exe? surprisingly not many java programmers know the answer to this java interview question, maybe because java developers have not paid enough attention to these commands. anyway here we will see few differences between java and java commands:

And, if you are serious about improving your advanced JVM skill and learn things like taking and analyzing heap dumps then highly recommend you to join Java Application Performance and Memory Management course on Udemy.

It's one of the advanced courses for Java programmers to learn more about Performance and Memory management including troubleshooting memory leaks in Java.

java vs javaw command

Both java.exe and javaw.exe can execute java programs including jar file, the only difference is that with java.exe you have a console executed and you need to wait until your java program finishes to run any other command on the other hand in case of javaw.exe no console or window is associated with execution.

you can run your java program either by using java.exe or javaw.exe. It's suggested to use javaw.exe when you don't need a command line window to appear. javaw launcher will display in error in a dialog box if execution fails.

In the summary, the main difference between java and javaw command is that with java.exe you will get a command prompt window but with javaw.exe there is no command prompt windows associated.

Other Java interview questions you may like

References:

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/tooldocs/windows/java.html