Where is your logging.properties file located? It should be available in the root of the classpath. As a sanity check, what does the following code print?

CopySystem.out.println(getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("logging.properties"));

If the code is in a static context, use

CopySystem.out.println(ClassName.class.getClassLoader().getResource("logging.properties"));

If you do not have any security constraint and your webstart or applet application can access file system then you can use $(user.home) system property.

It will allow the application to store the log file in the user home and would be operating system independent.

For example I am using Log4j and this is the configuration of my log4j.property file

log4j.appender.F.File=${user.home}/app.logs

If you are using default java logging then you can still fetch this system property and assign it is a log file location.

You can also append any location after $(user.home) if you wants to store the logs in sub directory.

For Example

log4j.appender.F.File=${user.home}/logs/application.log

Amendment:

if you do not want to store anything in home directory, you could get the root directory by navigating upward using getParent until null is returned and once you have root directory you can go to any location in the filesystem

To find your log files, you need to know that %h stands for the value in your user.home variable.

To get that, execute: System.out.println("%h: " + System.getProperty("user.home"));

You have to set which properties file you are using with a System.property as well. Here is one way to do it, otherwise it uses a default that isn't where you probably think it is.

java -Djava.util.logging.config.file=mylogging.properties

You can also do it programmatically before you start using the logging classes.

also

paths with spaces + Java == pain and suffering

and always use / as the path separator, Java will do the correct thing, even on Windows.