Portable Java

Details: Published: 07 May 2018

Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is a software package that contains what is required to run a Java program; such as Netbeans and DBeaver
[Wikipedia]

Note: If you can, install the latest executable JRE, which will give you the option to keep the Java JRE auto updated.

But if due to your company’s security policies, you are not be able to update to the latest required Java JRE or even install the Java JRE executable (exe), you can often download and use the portable versions of programs, often distributed as zip, tar, or gz files.

Or maybe you just want a portable and easy to backup version of the Java JRE.

To run Java programs with the latest Java JRE, download the Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE), Runtime Environment.

Download the latest version of Java JRE

Java SE Runtime Environment 10 Downloads
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jre10-downloads-4417026.html
Download the jre-10.0.1_windows-x64_bin.tar.gz file (as of this post)

Note: If you are on a 32bit OS, you will have to download the Java JRE version 8, as versions 9, 10 and later no longer support 32bit OSes.

Java SE Runtime Environment 8 Downloads
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jre8-downloads-2133155.html

Download the jre-8u172-windows-i586.tar.gz file for 32bit OSes or
Download the jre-8u172-windows-x64.tar.gz file for 64bit Oses

Extract the tar.gz file to a directory, such as
C:/Portable/Java/jre1.8.0_161/
Or
C:/Portable/Java/jre-10.0.1/

Note: BandiZip is a good free archive (zip) program

As an alternative, and if you can install exe files, you can try jPortable.
jPortable allows you to create a full-featured Java Runtime Environment

Run the downloaded
jPortable_8_Update_161_online.paf.exe

Choose an installation directory, which may be a USB drive.
The default installation directory is
C:\PortableApps\CommonFiles\Java

And wait for the program to download the actual Java JRE.

You now have a portable version of Java.
But to use it, you will often have to configure your programs to point to your portable Java directory.
So remember where you installed the Java JRE

C:/Portable/Java/jre1.8.0_161/
Or
C:\PortableApps\CommonFiles\Java

Note: You can also add these paths to your Environment Variables
Details can be found in this Stackoverflow post
https://stackoverflow.com/a/1672536