This is a short note for me to remember how I got the fantastic open source FreeMind mind mapping software running on Windows 10 using OpenJDK instead of the Oracle JDK. It seems like FreeMind is really old and has not been updated for a while but honestly, it does a lot of things and most of them really well.

The Problem

I cut down on using Java from Oracle when I reinstalled my computer and switched to OpenJDK instead. I downloaded the FreeMind package from the downloads site and installed it. I used the version without including the (very old) JDK.

Then, when I tried to run the installed ‘FreeMind.exe’ it complained that it could not find the JDK and quit.

Fixing the Problem

This is just a link – follow the advice on this page: https://superuser.com/questions/1603105/freemind-on-windows-exe-wrapper-not-recognizing-openjdk

In short, change the shortcuts to point to the .bat version instead of the .exe and for being able to open from the shell, update the Windows Registry to also open using the .bat file instead of the EXE.

If you run into any issues, leave a comment below and I can try to take a look to see if I can replicate it.