JInitiator Causing Internet Explorer To Crash

Problem: Attempting to launch an Oracle Forms web application is causing Internet Explorer to crash, specifically IE is complaining about the Oracle JInitiator JVM, jvm.dll. Apparently Oracle’s JVM (1.3.1.22) is incompatible with IE7. Here’s the familiar crash dialog; turns out it’s a nice paint brush:

The Fix: Fortunately, resolving this is easy, you’ll just need access to Sun’s JRE. You can find the problematic jvm.dll in the \Program Files\Oracle\JInitiator 1.3.1.xx\bin\hotspot directory. Rename jvm.dll (or just delete it) and replace it with Sun’s version, which, if the JRE is installed on your system, is probably located at \Program Files\Java\jre1.x.x\bin\client. Once installed, fire up IE and run the web app again, all should be well.

I’ve tested this with JRE versions 1.4.2.130 and 5.0.210.1. This fix would not work with v6 DLLs, as it would simply cause IE to rudely crash, with no helpful crash dialog at all.