MATLAB: Do I receive Java lang errors after starting MATLAB R14

MATLAB

The following error messages appear in the MATLAB Command Window after MATLAB is started:
 java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
 at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
 at java.lang.Class.forName(Unknown Source)
 at com.mathworks.mlservices.MLHelpServices.getDocRoot(MLHelpServices.java:372)
 at com.mathworks.mlwidgets.util.productinfo.ProductInfoUtils.getAbsolutePath(ProductInfoUtils.java:847)
 at com.mathworks.mlwidgets.util.productinfo.ProductInfoUtils.parseFile(ProductInfoUtils.java:420)
 at com.mathworks.mlwidgets.util.productinfo.ProductInfoUtils.parseAllFiles(ProductInfoUtils.java:460)
 at com.mathworks.mlwidgets.util.productinfo.ProductInfoUtils.pathChanged(ProductInfoUtils.java:342)
 at com.mathworks.mlwidgets.util.productinfo.ProductInfoUtils.<init>(ProductInfoUtils.java:288) ...
This behavior was seen on Windows 2000 and XP.
Another similar error message on Linux is as follows:
 sun.io.MalformedInputException
    at sun.io.ByteToCharGB18030.convert(Unknown Source)
    at sun.nio.cs.StreamDecoder$ConverterSD.convertInto(Unknown Source)
    at sun.nio.cs.StreamDecoder$ConverterSD.implRead(Unknown Source)
    at sun.nio.cs.StreamDecoder.read(Unknown Source)
    at java.io.InputStreamReader.read(Unknown Source)
    at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLEntityManager$EntityScanner.load(XMLEntityManager.java:3186)
    at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLEntityManager$EntityScanner.skipString(XMLEntityManager.java:2948)
    at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentScannerImpl$XMLDeclDispatcher.dispatch(XMLDocumentScannerImpl.java:563) ...

Best Answer

This bug has been fixed for Release 14 SP1 (R14SP1). For previous releases, please read below for any possible workarounds:
This error is ocurring because of a corrupt preference setting in the MATLAB preferences file. To fix this problem, start MATLAB and run the following statement in the Command Window, after the exceptions display:
com.mathworks.services.Prefs.setStringPref('HelpSelectedProducts','MATLAB');
After running the statement, quit MATLAB and then restart it. The problem should be fixed.
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