That is right. I encounted the similar issue. OS: Window XP JRE Home: C:Program FilesJavajre1.6.0_02. Error Info: 11:02:51,843 ERROR ContextLoader,main:205 - Context initialization failed org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'reportJobsPersistenceHibernateService' ...... When I disable JRE_HOME enviorment variable. The startup is ok.