diff --git a/java-runtime-decompiler b/java-runtime-decompiler
index df6ccc7..33ae9dd 100644
--- a/java-runtime-decompiler
+++ b/java-runtime-decompiler
@@ -2,6 +2,12 @@
 
 # java runtime decompiler launch script
 
+# unless java_home is set, select jdk17
+# this must be before sourcing java-functions
+if [ "x$JAVA_HOME" == "x" ] ; then
+  export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/jre-17-openjdk
+fi
+
 # JPackage Project <http://www.jpackage.org/>
 # Source functions library
 
diff --git a/java-runtime-decompiler.spec b/java-runtime-decompiler.spec
index fd9c1ee..e4990a5 100644
--- a/java-runtime-decompiler.spec
+++ b/java-runtime-decompiler.spec
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Summary: Application for extraction and decompilation of JVM byte code
 Name: java-runtime-decompiler
 Version: 7.3
-Release: 2%{?dist}
+Release: 3%{?dist}
 License: GPLv3
 URL: https://github.com/pmikova/java-runtime-decompiler
 Source0: https://github.com/pmikova/%{name}/archive/%{name}-%{version}.tar.gz
@@ -46,10 +46,10 @@ BuildRequires: classpathless-compiler
 Requires: google-gson
 Requires: byteman
 Requires: rsyntaxtextarea
-Requires: java-11-openjdk-headless
+Requires: java-17-openjdk-headless
 Requires: classpathless-compiler
 Requires: java-diff-utils
-Recommends: java-11-openjdk
+Recommends: java-17-openjdk
 Recommends: %{name}-fernflower-plugin
 Recommends: %{name}-procyon-plugin
 Recommends: %{name}-cfr-plugin
@@ -230,6 +230,9 @@ rm $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_sysconfdir}/%{name}/plugins/JdDecompilerWrapper.json
 %license LICENSE
 
 %changelog
+* Tue Jul 11 2023 Fedora Release Engineering <releng@fedoraproject.org> - 7.3-3
+- strictly needing jdk17 unless user says differently
+
 * Tue Jul 11 2023 Fedora Release Engineering <releng@fedoraproject.org> - 7.3-2
 - added 2b99a244b592445962cdd15ca33f80449f9aa2ea.patch to fix compiler issue in jrd window