If you're using Weka 3.8.1 on Windows you can save yourself a lot of trouble by editing the javaOpts parameter. The parameter maxheap isn't used anymore, so you can set javaOpts like this in RunWeka.ini file:
javaOpts= -Xmx1040m
Where 1040m is the amount of memory you want to allocate. 
Mind that the file is case sensitive.
There are a lot of ways to set this up, but this is the faster way to get Weka runing on a Windows environment at this version.
Edit: If you want Weka to use more than 1gb on windows, you need to have JDK installed. Regular JRE wont do it.