Navigate to http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/
	Find the Installation Instructions for the latest JDK update (currently JDK 6 update 6; NOT the "with J2EE" NOR the “with NetBeans” download)
	Read the Installation Instructions for your Operating System
	Return to the download page and click the “Download” button for the JDK update.
	Accept the License Agreement
	Then download the latest Java SE Development Kit for your operating system (for Windows, I recommend the "Windows Offline Installation")
	Run the installation program an follow the onscreen default options. Note the installation directory for the J2SE.

	Click the “Start” button
	Open the “Control Panel” (“Settings >> Control Panel” in Windows 2000)
	Select “System” to open up the “System Properties”
	Select the “Advanced” tab
	Click the “Environment Variables…” button
	Create or Update the “JAVA_HOME” variable

	In the “System Variables (lower screen), select the “JAVA_HOME” variable if it exists and click “Edit”. If “JAVA_HOME” does NOT exist, click “New” and type “JAVA_HOME” (all uppercase with underscore between words) in the “Variable Name” field.
	In the “Variable Value” field, replace the existing value (if any) or add the installation directory where Java was installed (i.e., “C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_06”).
	Click “OK”

Update the “PATH” variable

	In the “System Variables (lower screen), select the “PATH” variable and click “Edit”.
	Click on the “Variable Value” field and press the “Home” key (this positions the cursor at the beginning of the field).
	Insert “%JAVA_HOME%\bin;” in the “Variable Value” field being careful NOT to overwrite any existing text. Type it exactly as quoted and don’t forget the semicolon after “bin”
	Click “OK”

Create or Update the “CLASSPATH” variable

	In the “System Variables” (lower screen), select the “CLASSPATH” variable if it exists and click “Edit”. If “CLASSPATH” does NOT exist, click “New” and type “CLASSPATH” (all uppercase with no spaces) in the “Variable Name” field.
	If there is an existing “CLASSPATH” value, click on the “Variable Value” field and press the “Home” key (this positions the cursor at the beginning of the field).
	Insert “.;%JAVA_HOME%\lib\dt.jar;%JAVA_HOME%\lib\tools.jar” in the “Variable Value” field being careful NOT to overwrite any existing text. Type it exactly as quoted. Notice the “.;” (dot semicolon) at the beginning and don’t forget the semicolon after “dt.jar”.
	If there is text after “tools.jar”, add a semicolon after “tools.jar”
	Click “OK”

	Click the “Start” button
	Select “Run”
	In the “Open” field, type “cmd” and click “OK”.
	Type "echo %PATH%" in the command window
	Depending on your installation directory, you should see something like: "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_06\bin;" at the beginning of the PATH statement
	Type "echo %CLASSPATH%" in the command window
	Depending on your installation directory, you should see something like: ”.;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_06\lib\dt.jar;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_06\lib\tools.jar;” at the beginning of the CLASSPATH.
	At the command line, type “java -version"
	You should see: java version "1.6.0_06" at the beginning of the display.
	At the command line, type "javac -version"
	You should see: javac 1.6.0_06 at the beginning of the display.