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I have a PC that when you list the programs installed on it shows:

Java(TM) 6 Update 2
Java(TM) 6 Update 3
Java(TM) 6 Update 5
Java(TM) 6 Update 7
Java(TM) 6 Update 39

Is it safe to delete all but the most recent one?

epeleg
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1 Answers1

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Yes you can remove them, it is extremely rare for a program to need a old version of java.

In fact the "safe" thing to do is uninstall 6 update 39 too and install the most current version available from the website.

Scott Chamberlain
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  • does it matter in which order do I uninstall them? – epeleg Nov 11 '14 at 06:11
  • @epeleg - No, it won't matter which order you uninstall them, but I'd leave the most recent until last at the very least – Robotnik Nov 11 '14 at 06:12
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    so it means that those updates live "side-by-side" somehow? – epeleg Nov 11 '14 at 06:14
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    @epeleg Yes, that is correct. – Scott Chamberlain Nov 11 '14 at 06:34
  • @epeleg - The reason it installs like this is that some programs might rely on different versions of Java. Say you had two programs, Prog A and Prog B. Prog A relies on a function that was patched in version 25 (to fix a bug) - it wont work on version 24 or less. Meanwhile, Prog B only works on versions up to version 10, because when fixing a bug in version 10, they changed something that Prog B relied on. Until (and if) the Programs get patched to work with the latest version of Java, you may have to have both version 10 and version 25 installed to run both Prog A and B. – Robotnik Nov 11 '14 at 07:00
  • As Scott mentions in his answer, it's extremely rare for this to happen at all, let alone for regular consumers (it would happen mostly on server-side software anyway). But at least some people have the option to install multiple versions. Minecraft notoriously worked great with Java 6, but had memory issues with Java 7. – Robotnik Nov 11 '14 at 07:02