Somewhat confusingly, there was an old launcher called 'Minecraft Unified Launcher', which was specifically for Windows 7 and 8 and only launched Java Edition and Minecraft Dungeons.

Though Minecraft Java Edition can be downloaded and installed using Mojang's official launcher, the same can be achieved via custom launchers.

This new launcher consolidates Minecraft games, such as the dungeon crawler and action-adventure: Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Bedrock Edition, for easy access, especially for Windows 10 and 11 ...

We explain how to fix Java Virtual Machine Launcher Error, Could not create the Java Virtual Machine on Windows 11/10 computers.

Run Minecraft Java on your Steam Deck with my straightforward step-by-step guide, using Prism Launcher to keep things simple.

On PC, Minecraft uses its own dedicated launcher, giving you access to Java Edition, Bedrock Edition, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Legends all in one place.