This is probably caused by changes to the JRE, where after Java 1.7 some debugging related classes from the Java Develpment Tools (JDT) are not available any more. Apparently the JRE Preference Page wants to load some of those classes. The Eclipse installation page gives a hint: https://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse/Installation/#Install_a_JVM if you want to use the JDT you need to run on a JDK not a JRE. And the JRE preference page apparently is tied to the JDK.