Removing Java

[Guest]

From time to time, I've seen advice here to remove all but the most recent
versions of Java (Sun tends to install updates without removing older
versions).

I've done that for versions of Java that appear in Add/Remove, and I've
deleted the sub-folders under C:\Program Files \Java\ for the obsolete
versions, but I have a couple of apps (hp software comes to mind) that
installed their own (really old) version of Java in their own directory tree.
I'm a bit reluctant to simply delete these folders because I don't know if
the apps are smart enough to find the current installation of Java. I
suppose I could move/rename them and see if things break, but my question is

is there a security issue in having old versions of Java that are not
installed in the typical C:\Program Files\Java folder and do not appear in
Add/Remove software?

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "No caffeine" <[email protected]>

| From time to time, I've seen advice here to remove all but the most recent
| versions of Java (Sun tends to install updates without removing older
| versions).
|
| I've done that for versions of Java that appear in Add/Remove, and I've
| deleted the sub-folders under C:\Program Files \Java\ for the obsolete
| versions, but I have a couple of apps (hp software comes to mind) that
| installed their own (really old) version of Java in their own directory tree.
| I'm a bit reluctant to simply delete these folders because I don't know if
| the apps are smart enough to find the current installation of Java. I
| suppose I could move/rename them and see if things break, but my question is
|
| is there a security issue in having old versions of Java that are not
| installed in the typical C:\Program Files\Java folder and do not appear in
| Add/Remove software?

As far as I know those applications that are tied directly to a version of Sun Java have
not lead to exploitation. However, if it is an application that you use, contact the vendor
(such as HP you mentioned) for a newer version of that software and point to the following
reason if you contact support.

http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-26-102171-1