I am following along with HeadFirst java. Got the path(s) correct, checked to make sure java was installed correctly with javac. I created a folder in: C:\Users\JEFFD\headfirst. Changed dir to C:\Users\JEFFD\headfirst. When I try and run javac MyVeryFirstApp.java, the dos window pauses for a half a second and returns with C:\Users\JEFFD\headfirst.



public class MyVeryFirstApp {

public static void main (String [] args) {
System.out.println( "I Rule!");
System.out.println("The World!");
}
}


thanks for any help.

That is to be expected. Javac is just the compiler that generates bytecode from your program. You can execute the program using the java command.