goat weed

Here's the problem, ive downloaded the .exe version of the technic launcher, i click to open it, and it comes up with a box saying 'checking laucher version' - a java issue so i've read. So ive installed the latest version (java 7) from the oracle site, got rid of my old version and tried again. Same thing happened, the launcher wont open. I tried again with my antivirus program (sophos) disabled, and it still doesn't work. My operating system is Windows XP, im running 32bit java 7. I've tried using the .jar file, and running it using java, which hasn't worked either, so i really don't know what the problem is, any advice/help? :)