A strange thing has happened and it seems like it was triggered by the latest Windows upgrade. I upgraded from Windows 8.0 to 8.1, and ever since then, the embedded tomcat server in Spring Tool Suite won't start.

There's no indication of any problems in the log/console output, and the console says that it started up normally, but in the servers tab it says that the server is still in "starting..." status (seen below).

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/mIPg5.png)

After 120 seconds I get the following dialog:

`Server Tomcat v7.0 Server at localhost was unable to start within 120 seconds. If the server requires more time, try increasing the timeout in the server editor.`

I tried running the Tomcat server from a command prompt and it works fine. I can start the server and deploy my app fine.

Any ideas?