Fix FreeMind start-up failure
FreeMind is free
mind-mapping software written in Java. I installed version 0.80 sometime ago and used it for making notes about DynaMIT supply.
There's one annoying problem after the installation: when I tried to start it by FreeMind.exe, nothing happened; however, I could run it with FreeMind.bat (or double-clicking freemind.jar). I did some research on the web, and noticed that this could be a path problem (the FAQ says that it could be some earlier version of Java was used. But in my case, although C:\WINDOWS\system32\java.exe indeed comes before C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_06\bin\java.exe, both of them are of the same version -- this can be verified by running "java -version", where the output is
java version "1.5.0_06"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_06-b05)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_06-b05, mixed mode, sharing)
I opened a command prompt (cmd.exe) and tried to add the path of "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_06\bin" before all others, then it worked. So I tried to add this permanently in the Environment Variables (Win+Pause to bring up System Properties -> Advanced -> System Variables). But initially it didn't work, even if I put the java path before "%SystemRoot%\System32". It seems to me the reason is that, in the Path variable, some entries have quotation marks. If the java's path appears after any of these, then FreeMind.exe cannot start. Once I move it ahead of the first double quotation mark, then it works fine.