I am running applications on my windows server that run on Java 1.4
In the bottom right hand corner, Java wants me to update. Is this going to update to Java 1.6, or do these auto-updates only put out non breaking patches and my system will still be Java 1.4
Any insight would be great!
Thanks.
Allowing the update will install a new Java 1.6 JVM on your machine. It very much depends on how your application is set up - if the path to your Java Home folder is coded into run scripts or configuration files, then it probably won't affect you.
However, it will probably change the PATH to point to the new Java executable, so if your programs are run just using "java -jar SomeApp.jar" then it will affect you. Java 1.6 should be backwards compatible with Java 1.4 but it would be worth testing on a separate machine first!
no way, when Java updates new changes are included but the old sources like class Vector are still in use, also that objects are called deprecated but are usefull, cause if Java remove some class on their library It will be a chaos for software that are using old libs.
By the way, if you are using the default path for JVM, you will able to find diferents version of JDKs (1.4, 1.5, 1.6) so the app choose the JDK for what it will be config :)
cheers
*Sorry about my english
There is no such thing as a "non-breaking patch" - it's always possible that your app somehow depends on unspecified behaviour or even an outright bug that was changed/fixed even in a so-called "bugfix release".
But apart from that, Java generally has excellent downwards compatibility, and the chance is very good that your 1.4 will run on a Java 6 VM without any changes.
Open up Java in the control panel, and tell it to stop looking for updates.