How to run a 32bit eclipse and 64bit Eclipse side by side

Tags: Coldfusion, Eclipse

For a long time I could never find if there was a 64bit version of Eclipse, and found that deep within the eclipse.org site there is an actual 64bit version.

Not sure why this was never available at the start when asking for downloading the windows version, but these small things are annoying to say the least.

Anyway putting that aside, I was able to download it and get it running without any hitches on Windows 7. The problem arised when trying to get CFEclipse installed in to the 64bit Eclipse version, and although that is another story I got that to work eventually too. On my current installation of Vista 64bit, I have been slowly moving over to 64bit versions of software. Once they become available or I become aware that there is a 64bit version.

Now call me lazy if you like, but after having Eclipse running for a number of years now. I was a little reluctant to just move 100% over to the 64bit version until I was happy that it was setup the way I need it. This presented a small problem of how to run the 32bit and 64bit version, at the same time.

Well it appears it wasn't as hard as one might think, my main concern was when I installed the 64bit version of Java whether it would still run the 32bit version of Eclipse. As it turns out, the installation of java doesn't maodify the environment variables so that was a blessing in disguise. As I have alwasy been cursing it when it never did this, and know I am thanking it for not doing this.

Ok, with the 2 versions of java installed. I now have two versions of Eclipse unpacked to two different locations, and all that was needed now was to copy the JRE bin and lib directory from the 64bit java, into the eclipse 64bit directory.

The only downside to this method, is that I have to manually remember to update the JRE for eclipse if new versions are released. But I think that is a small price to pay to be able to do this.

TweetBacks


Comments (Moderated) | Add Comment

  • Mike's Gravatar Hi Andrew -

    Would you mind sending me the link to the 64-bit Eclipse?

    Thanks!

    -Mike
    # Posted By Mike | 3/19/09 7:31 AM
  • Paul's Gravatar Any performace gains? Any chance you know if the FlexBuilder plugin works?
    # Posted By Paul | 3/19/09 10:05 AM
  • Andrew Scott's Gravatar @Mike, sure, sorry I should have though of posting the
    link.

    http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/downloads/drop...
    # Posted By Andrew Scott | 3/19/09 12:50 PM
  • Andrew Scott's Gravatar @Paul - To be honest I haven't really paid any attention of any speed differences as of yet.
    # Posted By Andrew Scott | 3/19/09 12:52 PM
  • Filip's Gravatar I can't really say if I've noticed any performance gains. I guess it'd be true that you could probably address more memory to Eclipse and if your using ceratin plugins that have to deal with heavy-duty visualization or displaying huge ammounts of data from DBs--yeah it's win-win.

    The only problem I had with running Eclipse on 64bit JVM was when certain plugins had 3rd party dependancies, like Sublicse required a 64bit connetor (they don't ship one), so finding a 64bit JavaHL and registering it was about the only problem I expirienced with the port.
    # Posted By Filip | 6/6/09 3:07 AM

Comments (Moderated) | Add Comment