Dennis Dietrich

Now crashes without the error message.
After it says "Starting launcher", the icon at the top will change from the Java icon to the green/brown grass block icon, and the version number will appear behind "Minecraft launcher" (in this case 1.5.3).
No error message will appear. If you resize the window, everything inside the window turns into a light grey with no text visible anymore (just moving the window doesn't change anything).
There is no log file in the logs folder.

I used a fresh install of Minecraft, as usual.

The small .bat file still works fine, and the launcher appears as expected, so Christopher Rose may not be reporting the same issue (since it also doesn't work without a theme for him).

Without the error message, this bug may be hard to track for new users, and they may never be able to play the game, since they can't get help with their issue.
This needs to be adressed soon.

It is still a concern.
The error looks the same.

From what I've experienced so far, this exception is thrown most of the time by a problem with Java's LookAndFeel.
Typically when a user has a modified system theme. It's not the Minecraft Launchers fault.

Yes!

This seems to be the problem!

I changed the design back to the standard Windows 7 theme, and now i am able to launch minecraft.
That means my custom theme prevented a proper startup.

If i were capable of doing it, i would write a .bat to change the theme and then start minecraft.

Minecraft is running fine now.

Edit:
From the minecraft forums, posted by user Tehyoda:

1. Open notepad.
2. Copy and paste the code below into the notepad window.
3. Goto File => Save As... and save the file as "StartMC.bat" (with the quotes)
4. Save the "StartMC.bat" file in the same directory as Minecraft.exe
5. Use StartMC.bat to run Minecraft.

Note: If you use minecraft.jar instead of minecraft.exe, change the filename in the script.

The code:

@start /B javaw -Dswing.systemlaf=com.sun.javax.swing.plaf.metal.CrossPlatformLookAndFeel -jar Minecraft.exe

(all one line)

This works for me!

Uninstalled both 32 and 64 bit Java, deleted the .minecraft folder, deleted the minecraft.exe.
Ran CCleaner (on harddrives and registry).

Installed Java 32 bit.
Downloaded minecraft.exe from https://minecraft.net/download and ran it.
Same error as before, now in 32 bit:

Bootstrap (v5)
Current time is Jul 20, 2013 10:41:28 PM
System.getProperty('os.name') == 'Windows 7'
System.getProperty('os.version') == '6.1'
System.getProperty('os.arch') == 'x86'
System.getProperty('java.version') == '1.7.0_25'
System.getProperty('java.vendor') == 'Oracle Corporation'
System.getProperty('sun.arch.data.model') == '32'

Downloading: https://s3.amazonaws.com/Minecraft.Download/launcher/launcher.pack.lzma
Got reply in: 524ms
Downloaded 111,5kb in 0s at 163,2kb/s
Renaming C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\launcher.pack.lzma.new to C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\launcher.pack.lzma
Renamed successfully.
Reversing LZMA on C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\launcher.pack.lzma to C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\launcher.pack
Unpacking C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\launcher.pack to C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\launcher.jar
Cleaning up C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\launcher.pack
Starting launcher.
FATAL ERROR: net.minecraft.bootstrap.FatalBootstrapError: Unable to start: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
	at net.minecraft.bootstrap.Bootstrap.startLauncher(Bootstrap.java:242)
	at net.minecraft.bootstrap.Bootstrap.execute(Bootstrap.java:124)
	at net.minecraft.bootstrap.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:381)

Please fix the error and restart.

Uninstalled 32 bit Java, ran CCleaner, installed 64 bit Java.
Tried to run minecraft.exe, same error as before (now in 64 bit again):

Bootstrap (v5)
Current time is Jul 20, 2013 10:42:56 PM
System.getProperty('os.name') == 'Windows 7'
System.getProperty('os.version') == '6.1'
System.getProperty('os.arch') == 'amd64'
System.getProperty('java.version') == '1.7.0_25'
System.getProperty('java.vendor') == 'Oracle Corporation'
System.getProperty('sun.arch.data.model') == '64'

Looking for update
Downloading: https://s3.amazonaws.com/Minecraft.Download/launcher/launcher.pack.lzma
Got reply in: 584ms
No update found.
Reversing LZMA on C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\launcher.pack.lzma to C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\launcher.pack
Unpacking C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\launcher.pack to C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\launcher.jar
Cleaning up C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\launcher.pack
Starting launcher.
FATAL ERROR: net.minecraft.bootstrap.FatalBootstrapError: Unable to start: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
	at net.minecraft.bootstrap.Bootstrap.startLauncher(Bootstrap.java:242)
	at net.minecraft.bootstrap.Bootstrap.execute(Bootstrap.java:124)
	at net.minecraft.bootstrap.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:381)


Please fix the error and restart.

Uninstalling and reinstalling sadly didn't help.

Hi,
yes, this is still a concern.

This happens with the most recent minecraft.exe from https://minecraft.net/download
I can't update the version in my report, as there is no version shown.

A Java window opens and shows this text when i doubleclick the minecraft.exe:

Bootstrap (v5)
Current time is Jul 20, 2013 1:56:16 AM
System.getProperty('os.name') == 'Windows 7'
System.getProperty('os.version') == '6.1'
System.getProperty('os.arch') == 'amd64'
System.getProperty('java.version') == '1.7.0_25'
System.getProperty('java.vendor') == 'Oracle Corporation'
System.getProperty('sun.arch.data.model') == '64'

Looking for update
Downloading: https://s3.amazonaws.com/Minecraft.Download/launcher/launcher.pack.lzma
Got reply in: 579ms
No update found.
Reversing LZMA on C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\launcher.pack.lzma to C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\launcher.pack
Unpacking C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\launcher.pack to C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\launcher.jar
Cleaning up C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\launcher.pack
Starting launcher.
FATAL ERROR: net.minecraft.bootstrap.FatalBootstrapError: Unable to start: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
	at net.minecraft.bootstrap.Bootstrap.startLauncher(Bootstrap.java:242)
	at net.minecraft.bootstrap.Bootstrap.execute(Bootstrap.java:124)
	at net.minecraft.bootstrap.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:381)


Please fix the error and restart.

Since there was no previous version of minecraft on my PC, i guess the launcher version is the most recent.
I am not even sure if this is a launcher issue, as i never got that far (the launcher does not even show up). The minecraft.exe just stops after showing the above text.

Edit:
Running 1.5.2 on the website ( http://minecraft.net/demo ) works fine.