So I re-installed java in a directory that doesn't have any spaces in it, as I was having issues with it before.

Java JDK is installed in:

E:\downloads\java\jdk

I created a User variable:

JAVA_HOME E:\downloads\java\jdk

And my Path looks like:

%JAVA_HOME%\bin;%M2%;

Now opening a NEW cmd prompt:

c:\java
'java' is not recognized...

but echoing works:

c:\echo %JAVA_HOME%
E:\downloads\java\jdk

and so does this:

c:\%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java -version
java version "1.6.0_17"

I am trying to get this to work, so I can then get maven to work as maven is having the same type of issues (I created M2_HOME and M2 and none work).

What exactly am I doing wrong? I am having the exact same issue on my laptop also, both are running windows 7. I must be missing something!