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NeoForge User Guide

Whether you are a regular player, pack developer or server administrator, this guide is intended to help you through the process of preparing your computer to run NeoForge, as well as answer some frequently asked questions.

The guide mainly aims to help you install NeoForge using the official Minecraft launcher provided by Mojang. There are also a number of third-party launchers that mostly automate this process for you, some of which are mentioned in the article on third-party launchers.

Java​

In order to run NeoForge, you will first need to have Java installed on your computer. Java is the programming language Minecraft and NeoForge are written in. While Minecraft uses the launcher to download the required Java version, NeoForge requires you to install Java yourself.

The required Java version differs depending on what Minecraft version you want to run:

Minecraft versionJava version
1.20.2-1.20.417
1.20.5-latest21
info

While NeoForge exists for Minecraft 1.20.1, we recommend using Forge on that version instead, since it had longer support for Minecraft 1.20.1. We only recommend using NeoForge on Minecraft 1.20.2 and newer.

Testing For Java​

If you are sure that you do not have Java installed, you can skip to Installing Java.

In many cases, you may already have Java installed on your system. As such, you need to verify if the version is correct.

  • Open a terminal. The way to do this depends on the operating system you are running:

In the Start Menu at the bottom left, search for Command Prompt and press Enter.

  • Type the following command: java -version and press Enter.
  • If an error is displayed, then Java is not installed, and you can skip to the Installing Java section.
  • If Java is installed, you should see the following output (or something similar):
openjdk version "21.0.4" 2024-07-16 LTS
OpenJDK Runtime Environment Temurin-21.0.4+7 (build 21.0.4+7-LTS)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM Temurin-21.0.4+7 (build 21.0.4+7-LTS, mixed mode, sharing)
  • Verify that the first number after the version bit matches the Java version needed for the desired Minecraft version.
    • E.g., openjdk version "21.0.4" 2024-07-16 LTS is a Java 21 version and as such fit for Minecraft 1.20.5 and newer.
    • If the version does not match, then you will have to install the correct Java version.
  • If everything went smoothly, continue to Installing NeoForge.

Installing Java​

The way to install Java depends on your operating system. Always make sure you're grabbing the correct version of Java, and make sure you grab the 64-bit version, as modern versions of Minecraft do no longer support 32-bit versions of Java.

Download the JDK .msi from the Adoptium project. Open the .msi file you just downloaded in your file system, double-click it, and run through the installer.

After installing, it is recommended to test for Java again, just to make sure that everything went well.

Installing NeoForge​

Once you have successfully installed Java, you can now install NeoForge itself.

Further Help​

This guide covers most of the issues you may face as a user of NeoForge, however it is not intended to be exhaustive, and you may run into a problem which is not covered here.

Common problems can be found in the Troubleshooting & FAQ article. For further support, see the FAQ's Getting Support section.