Minimal requirements for testing standalone Java applications:
- install Java Virtual machine (jre or jdk) on your computer
- set "JAVA_HOME" environment variable
After that you can start your application.
The way of starting depends on how your application is packaged - java classes ("java app_name") or jar file ("java -jar app_name").

If the application has .bat file for starting, you can simply click on it.

Also there are many professional Java tools for testing/debugging -
for example, you can create JUnit test and run it on Eclipse... etc...

This post has been edited by java-area: Feb 4 2008, 03:46 AM

This is how i test/run my java applications:

1. I compile the file using javac, if you don't know what that is find a online java compiler.
2. I open up notepad and type java applicationnamehere (obviously change the applicationnamehere to your .class name)
3. Thats about it!