Maven 3: Maven in 5 minutes "mvn archetype:generate..." command NOT WORKING

I installed Maven 3.1.1 for the first time. In the "Maven in 5 Minutes" getting-started guide http://maven.apache.org/guides/getting-started/maven-in-five-minutes.html it says to verify the installation with `mvn --version` I got the expected response: ``` Apache Maven 3.1.1 (0728685237757ffbf44136acec0402957f723d9a; 2013-09-17 11:22:22-0400) Maven home: C:\applications\programming\apache-maven-3.1.1 Java version: 1.6.0_17, vendor: Sun Microsystems Inc. Java home: C:\applications\programming\java_6_17\jre Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: Cp1252 OS name: "windows 7", version: "6.1", arch: "x86", family: "windows" ``` In the next step, under "Creating a project" it says to create a new directory, open a command prompt in that directory, and execute `mvn archetype:generate -DgroupId=com.mycompany.app -DartifactId=my-app -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-quickstart -DinteractiveMode=false` I created a directory called `xjmaven`, ran the command in it, and it's not working. This is the response: ``` [R:\jeffy\programming\sandbox\xjmaven]mvn archetype:generate -DgroupId=xbnjava -DartifactId=XBN-Java -Darchetype ArtifactId=maven-archetype-quickstart -DinteractiveMode=false [INFO] Scanning for projects... [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] BUILD FAILURE [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Total time: 0.251s [INFO] Finished at: Sat Nov 23 12:11:56 EST 2013 [INFO] Final Memory: 2M/4M [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [ERROR] The goal you specified requires a project to execute but there is no POM in this directory (R:\jeffy\programming\sandbox\xjmaven). Please verify you invoked Maven from the correct directory. -> [Help 1] [ERROR] [ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch. [ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging. [ERROR] [ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles: [ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/MissingProjectException ``` I looked up the parameters `groupId`, `artifactId` and `archetypeArtifactId`, and have tried some different values (as you can see above), but I still get the same BUILD FAILURE response. I manually put the `pom.xml` file (from in the same webpage) in the xjmaven directory, and ran it again. It downloaded a bunch of stuff (although not to `xjmaven`), but then failed with this message: ``` [INFO] Generating project in Interactive mode Downloading: http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/org/apache/maven/archetypes/true/1.0/true-1.0.jar [INFO] [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Skipping Maven Quick Start Archetype [INFO] This project has been banned from the build due to previous failures. [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] BUILD FAILURE [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Total time: 45.047s [INFO] Finished at: Sat Nov 23 12:04:01 EST 2013 [INFO] Final Memory: 7M/17M [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-archetype-plugin:2.2:generate (default-cli) on project XBN-Java: The desired archetype does not exist (org.apache.maven.archetypes:true:1.0) -> [Help 1] [ERROR] [ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch. [ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging. [ERROR] [ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles: [ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/MojoFailureException ``` Repeating the command gives this response: ``` [INFO] Scanning for projects... [INFO] [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Building Maven Quick Start Archetype 1.0-SNAPSHOT [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] [INFO] >>> maven-archetype-plugin:2.2:generate (default-cli) @ XBN-Java >>> [INFO] [INFO] <<< maven-archetype-plugin:2.2:generate (default-cli) @ XBN-Java <<< [INFO] [INFO] --- maven-archetype-plugin:2.2:generate (default-cli) @ XBN-Java --- [INFO] Generating project in Interactive mode [INFO] [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Skipping Maven Quick Start Archetype [INFO] This project has been banned from the build due to previous failures. [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] BUILD FAILURE [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Total time: 4.444s [INFO] Finished at: Sat Nov 23 12:04:32 EST 2013 [INFO] Final Memory: 8M/14M [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-archetype-plugin:2.2:generate (default-cli) on project XBN-Java: The desired archetype does not exist (org.apache.maven.archetypes:true:1.0) -> [Help 1] [ERROR] [ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch. [ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging. [ERROR] [ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles: [ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/MojoFailureException ``` I deleted `pom.xml` (it's the only file in the directory...the stuff it downloaded is not there), and started over again. Everything happens (badly) as I write above. I remember trying Maven a few years ago, and could also not get past the getting-started stage. If anyone has some advice on how to get past this, it would be appreciated. Really frustrated.