java -version ????

I was trying to install netbeans on vista and the installer says  

JDK 6 or JDK 5 is required for installing the NetBeans IDE. Make sure that the JDK is properly installed and run installer again.
You can specify valid JDK location using --javahome installer argument. 

so when i try to check my intalled java version number it says

C:\Users\Naresh>java -version

Registry key 'Software\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment\CurrentVersion'

has value '1.5', but '1.6' is required.

Error: could not find java.dll

Error: could not find Java SE Runtime Environment.

To solve this i tried everything  changing, adding and deleting the registry entries whatever i felt would solve the issue. After digging into the issue somewhere i found a pointer to look into the java.exe in the C:\Windows\System32 folder.

Here I found that the java.exe is from java 6.0, i thought of replacing this with java.exe of 5.0 and suddenly it all worked :-) . So there is nothing that we could actually change in the registry

and finally 

C:\Users\Naresh>java -version

java version "1.5.0_06"

Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_06-b05)

Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_06-b05, mixed mode, sharing)