Josh Fruhlinger
Contributing Writer

Big Java update: Who’s excited? Who’s preloading?

how-to
Oct 23, 20081 min

So, it’s been a couple of days, but the long-promised Java SE 6 update 10 is finally here! Promising to launch programs faster, improve UIs, and pave the way for JavaFX, it’s now available for download on Windows machines. (Sadly, my Mac will have to wait, apparently.)

One of the gripes about it (already) is Java Quick Starter, which, by default under Windows 2000 and XP, runs a process in the background that essentially keeps commonly used Java libraries in RAM. Vista supposedly does its own pre-loading, though JQS can be turned on there if the user is experiencing problems launching apps. So, what’s your take on this feature — more junk running in the background, or a valuable tool?