diff --git a/vscode-extensions/commons-vscode/src/launch-util.ts b/vscode-extensions/commons-vscode/src/launch-util.ts
index f2a895637..5fc5bd85b 100644
--- a/vscode-extensions/commons-vscode/src/launch-util.ts
+++ b/vscode-extensions/commons-vscode/src/launch-util.ts
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ export interface ActivatorOptions {
     clientOptions: LanguageClientOptions;
     launcher: (context: VSCode.ExtensionContext) => string;
     jvmHeap?: string;
-    classpath?: (context: VSCode.ExtensionContext) => string[];
+    classpath?: (context: VSCode.ExtensionContext, javaVersion: number) => string[];
 }
 
 export function activate(options: ActivatorOptions, context: VSCode.ExtensionContext): Promise<LanguageClient> {
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ export function activate(options: ActivatorOptions, context: VSCode.ExtensionCon
                                 '-Dorg.slf4j.simpleLogger.logFile=' + logfile
                             ];
                             if (options.classpath) {
-                                const classpath = options.classpath(context);
+                                const classpath = options.classpath(context, version);
                                 if (classpath) {
                                     args.push('-cp');
                                     args.push(classpath.join(Path.delimiter));
diff --git a/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-java/lib/Main.ts b/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-java/lib/Main.ts
index d94520247..2b6e1225a 100644
--- a/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-java/lib/Main.ts
+++ b/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-java/lib/Main.ts
@@ -22,16 +22,20 @@ export function activate(context: VSCode.ExtensionContext) {
         CONNECT_TO_LS: false,
         extensionId: 'boot-java',
         launcher: (context: VSCode.ExtensionContext) => 'org.springframework.boot.loader.JarLauncher',
-        classpath: (context: VSCode.ExtensionContext) => {
+        classpath: (context: VSCode.ExtensionContext, javaVersion: number) => {
             const classpath = [
                 Path.resolve(context.extensionPath, 'jars/language-server.jar')
             ];
-            const toolsJar = commons.findJvmFile('lib', 'tools.jar');
-            if (toolsJar) {
-                classpath.push(toolsJar);
-            } else {
-                VSCode.window.showWarningMessage('JAVA_HOME environment variable points either to JRE or JDK missing "lib/tools.jar" hence Boot Hints are unavailable');
+
+            if (javaVersion < 9) {
+                const toolsJar = commons.findJvmFile('lib', 'tools.jar');
+                if (toolsJar) {
+                    classpath.push(toolsJar);
+                } else {
+                    VSCode.window.showWarningMessage('JAVA_HOME environment variable points either to JRE or JDK missing "lib/tools.jar" hence Boot Hints are unavailable');
+                }
             }
+
             return classpath;
         },
         clientOptions: {