Marie wants to know if she can remove old Java updates
In my Add/Remove program I have 5 J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 updates and 7 Java(TM)6 updates— update 13 has size 97.04MB and update 17 has size 90.62MB — the others have no size at all. Do I have to keep them all or can I uninstall the old updates and keep only the most recent one?
Our answer
You can safely uninstall the older ones. The newest version is always (supposedly) the safest one. According to Sun Microsystems – the developer/distributer of Java, you can also leave older versions on your computer without causing any problems – except the space they take up. Sun states that some older software may depend on an older Java Runtime, but that is very unlikely. You can get the full scoop from Sun by visiting this page. http://www.java.com/en/download/faq/remove_olderversions.xml .
JUST A WORD OF CAUTION….
With RevoUninstaller, I unstalled all Java files except the latest Runtime environment. Then I started fresh by downloading the latest from the Java download site.
During installation, be sure to UNCHECK the box for the ASK TOOLBAR.
If, like me, you miss the request to install the ASK toolbar and allow it through, you can always uninstall if from the add/remove settings in control panel. I usually refuse these add-ons as a matter of principal. If they have to sneak them through in this manner, are they really that good?