I've given up trying to use Eclipse on Windows 7 and gone to NetBeans instead. I just cant get Eclipse to start at all. Anyone else had this problem?

I use Eclipse on Windows 7 and love it!
I have had it installed on my computer for a while, but actually started to use it after getting some tips from the videos that accompany the Java Programming: 24-Hour Trainer. I also find very useful Lesson 2 in the book, which gives you an introduction to Eclipse, starting from detailed explanation of downloading and installing.
But, as the author states, "switching from one IDE to another is a pretty simple process, and if you see that in some areas one IDE makes you more productive than the other, just use the best one for the job."

Oh I like Eclipse alright: I've used it before on an old vista machine, but
I've found it impossible to install and use on win 7. (i have a quad core AMD)
I keep getting the error message below:

"failed to load the JNI shared library c:\program files(x86)\java\jdk1.6.0_26\bin"

It's to do with using a 64 bit version with a 32 bit Jdk, as far as I can tell, but I've tried using both on 32 and then Both on 32 but still no joy. Very frustrating.

**Update**
After much banging around and gnashing of teeth last night i've finally got it working. I just had to get the combination of versions to match, and unistall each preceeding version correctly. or something like that. I don't know: next option was to start hitting it with big sticks, so glad its working.

Hi idlebones! I used to have that problem. What is happening is that you might have different versions of the jre installed and it defaults to the 32 bit version. This is what I have installed on my windows 7 machine:
Java(TM) 6 Update 29 (64-bit)
Java(TM) 6 Update 30
Java(TM) 7 Update 1 (64-bit)

When running eclipse for the first time it can not find the 64 bit environment and I believe it tries to use ( Java(TM) 6 Update 30 ). Below are the steps to the fix:

1. Navigate to your eclipse install.
2. Open your eclipse.ini file.
3. Open the .ini file with wordpad (wordpad is organized better than notepad).
4. input the lines below and click save.
-vm
C:\Java\JDK\1.6\bin\javaw.exe (This is an example. Your 64 bit version path may look diifferent)

I have mine pointing to the 1.7 java version. I hope this helps.

For more info:
http://wiki.eclipse.org/FAQ_How_do_I_run_Eclipse%3F