rexnervous, I had a problem installing the Firebird Java VM. The installation would complete successfully, but the webpage would still said “you need to install the Java VM plugin”. However, the Firebird FAQ suggested adding something to the registry before installation, which worked just fine.
Is that the problem you’re having, or does it really say, “You must use the Microsoft JVM” (which really defeats the point of using Java in the first place)? Point Firebird to this Yahoo! crossword puzzle and see what you get. If your JVM is working properly, you should have no problems with it.