Starting from Minecraft 1.12, Java 8 is required to run Minecraft.

Users can even run both side-by-side for 64 bit operating systems. Java is available on Microsoft Windows in 64 and 32 bit versions, allowing users to get the appropriate version for their system.

If you get the JDK it comes with a JRE included so you don’t need to get the JRE separately. The JRE is the run time environment only – get this if you only want to run Java programs. The JDK comes with the Java compiler (javac) which you will need for development. What is the difference between JRE and JDK?ĭownload the JDK if you want to do Java development.