Can NetBeans 7.4 use JDK 1.6 as the default platform?

Question

I use Netbeans to work mainly on Java Core Applications that were created and should run on Java 6. I have Java 6, 7, and 8 installed on my machine, and they are all available on NetBeans to configure my projects.

However, since NetBeans 7.4 only runs on Java 7+, Java 7 is selected as the default platform in NetBeans. The usual way to change this is to install

netbeans_jdkhome=<my java 6 installation> 

in netbeans.conf.

However, this NetBeans JDK uses to run, so I'm at a dead end.

The problem is this: Our projects depend on many other projects, unfortunately, not using something like maven or similar, so when I do a “clean and build” in netbeans, even when I install the project platform on “Java 1.6” , all dependencies are collected using "Java 1.7".

Is there any other way to set the default platform for netbeans? I would prefer not to switch to NetBeans 7.3.1, since 7.4 fixes some bugs, I was REALLY annoyed and slowed down.

I already asked the same question on the NetBeans forums without any reaction, so please forgive me if you already read it there.

Answer 1

Currently, in addition to netbeans.conf, you can specify only the Java platform for each project (Project context menu → Properties → Build → Compile), and not “Project Group” or NetBeans.

Also see: https://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=234324