Is there a way to update the JDK without manually downloading the new version?

I just got an Java update notification that Update 17 is out, so I ran the update and found that only my public JRE was updated. I still only have Update 16 of the JDK.

Is there a way to have the latest JDK automatically when it's available?

Of course, the update shouldn't get rid of old versions. That should be done manually since Eclipse is still using the old version. Once I've updated my settings I would delete the old JDK manually.

Not on Windows. If you are getting your JDK via a linux distro with an auto-updater, you could depend on that. Somehow I doubt that is what you have in mind. I do not believe that there is any Sun-supplied auto-download for the JDK.

Under OS X this is part of the operating system and is automatically updated. For Windows you must do it yourself.

Secunia PSI (a free version that runs on a single PC) will update it automatically. Read a review of it here. If you're running both Java 6 and Java 7 JREs (like me), there can be glitches and you still have to update manually sometimes.

Ninite is a great website that lets you download the latest version of multiple applications/packages. If you save the installer, it will always pull the most recent version and download/install it without prompts. Reference: https://ninite.com/help/home/update.html

I did this myself just now, only caveat is that I had to delete the older jdk folder in "C:\Program Files\Java" in order for the "java -version" command to recognize the change.

On MacOS, java can now be installed through the Homebrew package manager. After installing Homebrew, you can simply run:

brew cask install java

to install the latest java version. It can then be kept up using

brew cask reinstall java