Java 4 and 5 This version is for older operating systems without Java 6 support. Legacy Java jar file which runs JIBS using your installed Java. There is no installation - just download and run the file - usually by double clicking on it. Works on Windows and any other operationing system which runs Java 6. Memory Issue: Java 4 and 5 by default give a program very little memory. This can slow JIBS down, particularly with the thumbnail view. Starting with 2.3.3, JIBS now by default starts with -Xms40M -Xmx100M. You further adjust the memory by starting JIBS with the following command line: java -Xms200M -Xmx1000M -jar JIBS.jar For ease of use, this can be added to a Windows shortcut, or put in a batch file or command script. Before Java 6, the default heap size was initially 2 megabytes with a maximum of 64 megabytes . Not much really. The command above raise the initial to 200 megabytes and the maximum to 1 gigabyte. Java 6 does memory allocation based on how much memory is actually on the machine, so this is often much less of a problem with Java 6. Options for starting Jibs with custom properties files 1. Default operation. All properties are kept in Java's default location for you operating system. For Windows, this is in the Windows registry. 2. Look in same directory as Jibs. Jibs will now look in the directory where jibs.jar is for: jibs.props If that file is found, Jibs will read its properties from that file not from the system. The file can be created as an empty file and Jibs will just start using it. 3. Specify where to get properties from. You specify what property file Jibs will use with -props D:\dev\workspaces\JIBS\bin\jibs.props If the properties file does not exist, Jibs will try to create it. 4. Thumbdrive option. This tells Jibs to use specific sub-directories from where it starts. This is meant to enable loading jibs.jar with some sub-directories onto a thumbdrive and running jibs from the thumbdrive. -thumbdrive Jibs will look for and try to create the following sub-diretories of the directory where jibs.jar is located: pictures park delete Thumbdrive takes precedence over any directories set in the property files. Options for starting Jibs with particular directories You can start JIBS with a particular directory showing (-view) and a particulary directory (-tree) as the root fo the tree on the right. The following command shows how to do this: java -jar jibs.jar -view "c:\foo\picture\halloween" -tree "c:\foo\pictures" This is a Java program so you need Java 4, 5, or 6. Java can be downloaded from java.sun.com.