imagej / imagej/ImageJ

On first run, ImageJ.exe on Windows tries to access registry key with "All Access" where read access would be sufficient

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Java
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Description

OS: Windows 10
Java Version: Oracle JRE 1.8.0_221

When using a fresh, non-JRE-bundled install of ImageJ1 1.52d from https://imagej.nih.gov/ij/download.html , ImageJ.exe first tries to locate a JVM in the registry. To do this, the key "HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment" is accessed (I have a JAVA_HOME environment variable set as well, but this seems to be ignored).

For security reasons, the registry key "HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment" is not writable for default users on my system. ImageJ.exe, however, requests full permissions when accessing this key, which leads to the system denying the access alltogether and Imagej.exe subsequently not finding the JVM.

This registry access should be changed to a pure read request. Also, the environment variable JAVA_HOME should be taken into account if no registry entry is found.

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Research direction

Start at the ImageJ.exe startup path that locates a JVM on Windows, reproducing the fresh non-JRE-bundled installation described in the report. Check the registry access for HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment and the JAVA_HOME fallback; done means a default user can launch successfully with read-only registry access or JAVA_HOME.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
java
Domain
desktop, operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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