Java application does not start on Microsoft Windows

It is possible that Java applications don't start on Microsoft Windows even though the Java Runtime Environment is installed. This is due to the fact that JAR file are technically the same as ZIP files and some ZIP archivers wrongly declare themselves authoritative. In that case, starting a Java application only results in a window popping up, listing the contained files.

To fix this, all you have to do is to fix the file association. The easiest way to do so is to simply reinstall Java from java.com.