Noob needs some help!

Im not entirely sure if this is the correct place to ask these questions, but as they all are based upon the same goal i figured it wouldnt be too far off. Anyways onto the questions.

I am currently reading a starter guide on java programming called “SAMS Teach Yourself Programming with Java in 24 Hours, FOURTH EDITION @ Team DDU” and thus far it seems good. It was written in 2006 so im sure its a bit out dated, and it does not include anything about my current OS which is Vista. I am very puzzled about how to set up my JDK. I just installed the latest JDK but the tutorial is telling me that there is a particular way you must set it up so it recognizes where to go. The part that threw me off was when it had said that i needed to do this:

"The Notepad text editor opens. Choose File, Open from Notepad’s menu bar, go to the root folder on your main hard drive, and then open the file AUTOEXEC.BAT."

Now i was able to find a file named “AUTOEXEC.TM” in my System32 folder, and thought it may have worked but to my dismay it didnt. After that i was completely thrown off course just setting it up. After that it tells me how to set a path which also didnt work.

So basically my question to you is, am I being completely stupid and overlooking something or is there a way to configure JDK on a vista if anyone has a guide to doing so? Until i set this up i cannot continue with the guide because as you probably know you need it for anything you want to do.

Thanks for your time and reading this, any tips/help is greatly appreciated!

You only have to setup your path for Java if you want to be able to type ‘javac’ instead of ‘C:\path\to\javac’ .

It’s a minor thing, and I am pretty sure you can do without, especially since IDEs (like Eclipse or NetBeans) will do that for you.

Further, autoexec.bat was last used in Windows 98/Me. Seeing that in a book written in 2006 is disturbing.

Okay so after i installed and followed the steps on the actual JDK program it should work fine? Also based upon the little bit from the guide you have heard do you think i should junk that one and look for another? Thanks very much for you help!

http://math.hws.edu/javanotes/