Java Web Start provides a series of [[Class (computer science)|class]]es in the <code>[http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/docs/javadoc/index.html javax.jnlp]</code> [[Java package|package]] which provide various services to the application. Sun designed most of these services with the aim of allowing carefully controlled access to resources (such as files and the system clipboard) while restricting the application to authorized operations.
Sun introduced version 1.0 of Web Start in March 2001.
Since [[Java Platform, Standard Edition|J2SE]] 1.4 Web Start comes as a default part of [[Java Runtime Environment]] (JRE) called <code>javaws</code>, and computer administrators no longer have to install it separately.
