I did have three versions, all of which I removed, and then reinstalled from jre-6u31-windows-x64.exe which says it is the latest version for my computer. I also tried installing it on my laptop which is also 64 bit but runnin Vista. That worked, but the sound card sucks and puts out huge amounts of noise on that system.
After I reinstalled Java on the main system I tried the installation again. It stopped, but at least this time it is saying explicitly that it can't find java. My java.exe is in C:\Windows\System32\java.exe so I added that to the path. No dice, it still bombs with the complaint that it can't find Java.
Sorry, but I don't consider that a viable option.
