diff --git a/java/pom.xml b/java/pom.xml
index c933a249..1ab6792c 100644
--- a/java/pom.xml
+++ b/java/pom.xml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
     <groupId>org.micro-manager.pycro-manager</groupId>
     <artifactId>PycroManagerJava</artifactId>
-     <version>0.44.1</version>
+     <version>0.44.2</version>
     <packaging>jar</packaging>
     <name>Pycro-Manager Java</name>
     <description>The Java components of Pycro-Manager</description>
@@ -144,4 +144,4 @@
       </repository>
    </distributionManagement>
 
-</project>
\ No newline at end of file
+</project>
diff --git a/java/src/main/java/org/micromanager/remote/HeadlessLauncher.java b/java/src/main/java/org/micromanager/remote/HeadlessLauncher.java
index e7af5099..46b908bd 100644
--- a/java/src/main/java/org/micromanager/remote/HeadlessLauncher.java
+++ b/java/src/main/java/org/micromanager/remote/HeadlessLauncher.java
@@ -30,7 +30,9 @@ public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
       int bufferSizeMB = Integer.parseInt(args[2]);
       String coreLogPath = args[3];
 
-      core.loadSystemConfiguration(configFilePath);
+      if (configFilePath != null && configFilePath.length() != 0) {
+         core.loadSystemConfiguration(configFilePath);
+      }
       core.setCircularBufferMemoryFootprint(bufferSizeMB);
       core.enableStderrLog(true);
       core.enableDebugLog(true);
diff --git a/pycromanager/test/test_startup.py b/pycromanager/test/test_startup.py
index 8d05511c..7d4fbbae 100644
--- a/pycromanager/test/test_startup.py
+++ b/pycromanager/test/test_startup.py
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 import os
 from pycromanager import Core
 
-
 def test_connect_to_core(launch_mm_headless):
     mmc = Core()