Question

Background

I have an old applet that I want to revive. All functionality works in Windows XP. However, in Windows 7 it doesn’t work to open a file in its native application (part of code below). Nothing happens, no error or anything similar. I am using Java version 1.5.0 (J2SE 5.0), thus Desktop.getDesktop(); will not work!

Code

public void start(String sFileName, String sDir, ctgraphics gGfx) {
    String command = '"' + sDir + sFileName + '"';
    Runtime myRuntime = Runtime.getRuntime();
    try {
        myRuntime.exec("rundll32 SHELL32.DLL,ShellExec_RunDLL " + command);
        gGfx.setStatusText("File opened.");
        gGfx.drawStatusBar(1);
    } catch (IOException e) {

        System.out.println("Error " + e.getMessage());
    }

}

Question

Why doesn’t the above code work in Windows 7 and what do I need to do instead to be able to open a file in its native application (considering I am using Java v. 1.5) ?

.

Cheers.

Answer 1

You may want to use the Desktop support, look at this link:

Desktop.open

You just create a File with the path of the file you want to open and then call Desktop.getDesktop().open(file).

Before 1.5 desktop was a Library that then it made it into the standard JDK, you can consider using this option.

Here you can find a tutorial:

javadesktop tutorial for java one 2004

Hope this helps

And here is the project site:

JDIC Project

Here you can find the jars:

Maven repo with jdic jars