I have a PC running 64 bit Windows Server 2003. There is a java application which uses cmd file as a launcher. The launcher does this SET JAVA_HOME= C:\Progra~1\Java "%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java" [java program execution line] Java is installed in C:\Program Files\Java. Since it is a x64 windows it also has C:\Program Files (x86)\ folder. Now the actual problem is that from time to time this application fails to start because it fails to find java. So the question is what windows does to resolve such ambiguity? Based on what it makes decisions about which folder to choose?