Specify JRE for IntelliJ Idea on Windows

In the following post it was specified that the paths look up sequence is the following:

1. IDEA_JDK env. variable
2. ./jre directory
3. registry
4. JDK_HOME environment variable

And indeed. Creating an IDEA_JDK environment variable did help.

More actual information including JDK64 setup is here:

<product>.exe uses this JDK search sequence:

1. IDEA_JDK / WEBIDE_JDK / PYCHARM_JDK / RUBYMINE_JDK environment variable (depends on the product, WEBIDE_JDK applies to both WebStorm and PhpStorm)
2. ..\jre directory
3. system Registry
4. JDK_HOME environment variable
5. JAVA_HOME environment variable

idea64.exe uses this JDK search sequence:

1. IDEA_JDK_64 environment variable
2. ..\jre64 directory
3. system Registry
4. JDK_HOME environment variable
5. JAVA_HOME environment variable

It’s also possible to start the IDE with <product>.bat file located in the bin directory, it uses the following JDK search sequence:

1. IDEA_JDK / WEBIDE_JDK / PYCHARM_JDK / RUBYMINE_JDK environment variable (depends on the product)
2. ..\jre directory
3. JDK_HOME environment variable
4. JAVA_HOME environment variable

Environment variable must point to the JDK installation home directory, for example:

c:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.7.0_17

• /create-i4j-log command line switch can be used with the .exe to trace the JDK search sequence and find out why the specific JDK was chosen.
• The actual JDK version used by the IDE can be verified in Help | About dialog (open any project to access the menu).
• Define IDEA_JDK / WEBIDE_JDK / PYCHARM_JDK / RUBYMINE_JDK variable depending on the product to override the default version from IDE_HOME\jre.
• Use Rapid Environment Editor to add/edit the variables, it will detect incorrect paths.