I was going through my Add/Remove Programs listing this morning and noticed 5 entries for the Java Runtime Environment dating back to “Java 5 Release 7″. I thought this was very odd as there was a subsequent entry for each release after this and all were ~100MB in size.
So to see what was happening, I checked Java for updates and sure enough a new one was out. I ran the web updater (which usually notifies you in your System Tray) and completed the update. Upon refreshing the Add/Remove Programs list, another Java entry was added.
Of course the new version of Java does not require the previous, so I uninstalled every version up to the most recent and tried a Java app. It worked without any hitches.
So check your Add/Remove Programs and remove any old entries of the Java Runtime to clear up some clutter on your machine.
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Jason Faulkner is the man who brings you our daily tips. He is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
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John Waggoner said:
8/10/2007 6:53 am
I liked this tip. While I was deleting my extra Java installs I noticed that I have Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1, 1.1 Hotfix, 2.0 and 3.0. How many of them do I need?
[Reply]
John P. Mackay said:
8/10/2007 7:04 am
I have three different files of Java in my computer when I check through Add/Remove Programs. The files are below:
J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 1
J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 6
J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 9
Java 2 Runtime Environment Standard Edition v.1.13_02
Java (TM) 6 Update 2
Java (TM) SE Runtime Environment 6
I know I could unistall 2 earlier installments of J2SE Runtime Environment but what’s about Java 2 Runtime Environment Standard Edition v.1.13_02 and two other files as well with Java (TM) 6 Update 2 and Java (TM) SE Runtime Environment 6.
Please let me know which files of all programs I can unistall and which program should I keep to run the program of Java?
Thank you,
John P. Mackay
Belleville, ON Canada
[Reply]
Jason Faulkner said:
8/10/2007 9:26 am
John Waggoner: .NET is totally different, leave these entries alone.
John P. Mackay: You should be able to safely remove all them except “Java (TM) 6 Update 2″.
[Reply]
Michael Trombetta said:
8/10/2007 11:02 am
I too am confused about which Java programs I can remove. On my computer I have:
J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 10
J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 2
J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 4
Java 2 Runtime Environment. SE v1.4.2_05
Java 2 Runtime Environment. SE v1.4.2_06
Java(TM) 6 Update 2
I’d appreciate knowing which I can safely remove.
Thanks
Michael Trombetta
[Reply]
Larry Thompson said:
8/13/2007 9:53 am
.net is another one that seems to install all of its versions . I recently did a clean install and decided to only install .net 3 the I have to programs that run in .net and one needs .net 2 and it seemed to work fine but then windows update installed .net 2 as a high priority update ? why cant they just update and overwrite the previous edition?
[Reply]
Flor Sevilla said:
4/19/2008 7:59 pm
I too am confused about which Java programs I can remove. On my computer I have:
Java Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 3
Java 2 Runtime Environment. SE v1.3.1_02
Java(TM) 6 Update 2
Java(TM) 6 Update 3
Java(TM) 6 Update 4
I’d appreciate knowing which I can safely remove.
Thanks
Flor Sevilla
[Reply]