diff --git a/sdk/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/dataflow/sdk/runners/DataflowPipelineRunner.java b/sdk/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/dataflow/sdk/runners/DataflowPipelineRunner.java
index e7589bfef4..9927919cc4 100644
--- a/sdk/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/dataflow/sdk/runners/DataflowPipelineRunner.java
+++ b/sdk/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/dataflow/sdk/runners/DataflowPipelineRunner.java
@@ -136,6 +136,8 @@
 import com.google.common.base.Function;
 import com.google.common.base.Joiner;
 import com.google.common.base.Optional;
+import com.google.common.base.Splitter;
+import com.google.common.base.StandardSystemProperty;
 import com.google.common.base.Strings;
 import com.google.common.base.Utf8;
 import com.google.common.collect.ForwardingMap;
@@ -3198,6 +3200,10 @@ public String toString() {
    * @return A list of absolute paths to the resources the class loader uses.
    */
   protected static List<String> detectClassPathResourcesToStage(ClassLoader classLoader) {
+    if (classLoader == ClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader()) {
+      return Splitter.on(File.pathSeparatorChar)
+          .splitToList(StandardSystemProperty.JAVA_CLASS_PATH.value());
+    }
     if (!(classLoader instanceof URLClassLoader)) {
       String message = String.format("Unable to use ClassLoader to detect classpath elements. "
           + "Current ClassLoader is %s, only URLClassLoaders are supported.", classLoader);