Local confluence fails to start with error "Unable to access jarfile C:\Program"

Question

I have just downloaded the latest version of confluence and installed it on my PC (windows 10). I chose not to install it as a service and it did not start up automatically like the documentation suggested it should. I then wnet into the confluence/bin folder and manually ran the startup batch file there but got the following error:

"Using Java: C:\Progra~1\Java\jdk1.8.0_111\bin\java.exe"
Error: Unable to access jarfile C:\Program
Error: Unable to access jarfile C:\Program
"---------------------------------------------------------------------------"
Using CATALINA_BASE: "C:\Program Files\Atlassian\Confluence"
Using CATALINA_HOME: "C:\Program Files\Atlassian\Confluence"
Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: "C:\Program Files\Atlassian\Confluence	emp"
Using JRE_HOME: "C:\Progra~1\Java\jdk1.8.0_111"
Using CLASSPATH: "C:\Program Files\Atlassian\Confluence\bin\bootstrap.jar;C:\Program Files\Atlassian\Confluence\bin	omcat-juli.jar"

I originally had a problem with my JAVA_HOME path and a space, which I have now fixed using the tilda as you can see above. But it is now not able to handle spaces for the jar files it is trying to run. Any help with this would be great thanks.

unknown · Answer

I'm having this issue with a recent server install, everything was working initially. I uninstalled and reinstalled Java into c:\java  and updated my java_home env variable but the problem persists.  Is this because Confluence is installed in Program Files itself?  If so, this should be considered a bug, the installer users that path as a default.

Phil Haddock · Answer

Thanks Nic, I figured it out after I posted.  Shame that not all the variables are set in the set-env.bat.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

Windows does not handle spaces in directory names well, and installers fall down when they're used.

Either install the software in one of the recommended paths (one with no spaces in the name), or change the environment so that the actual paths are used instead of the names.

In the question, you can see the JRE_HOME uses an actual path, but the rest of the lines use the names.  Change set-env.bat (and others in the bin directory) so that they use Progra~1 instead of Program Files