The message “Picked up _JAVA_OPTIONS” implies that the Java runtime has found this setting in your environment variables. The solution depends on which operating system you are running. But assuming it is Windows, there are two possibilities:
The most likely is that it is picking it up from the System or User environment. Try opening and command prompt and typing
echo %_JAVA_OPTIONS%
If you see “-Xmx256M”, then that’s where it is coming from. Hit the start button and search for “Edit the system environment” variables. On the “Advanced” tab, click the “Environment Variables…” button at the bottom. You’ll find the _JAVA_OPTIONS variable in either the System variables or the User variables (or both!). Delete or change to suit.
The other possiblity is that your Java programs are being executed via a script. Look at the shortcuts’ properties (or however you start the programs) to see if they are directly referencing a java “.exe” executable, or if they are using a script. Alternatively, in your command prompt type
where java
And check to see if this is a true .exe file or a script. It’s possible that the _JAVA_OPTIONS variable is hidden in there.