Delete Old Java Versions

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If there is not an older version of Java on your machine, you will need to download and install the previous version and reinstall Voyant. Installing an older release of Java. If no older versions of Java appear in the Control Panel, download and install one from the Oracle archive site: Java SE 8 Archive Downloads. I have a Linux box on which Java 1.7 is installed: #java -version java version '1.7.009-icedtea' OpenJDK Runtime Environment (rhel-2.3.4.1.el63-x8664) OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.2-b09, mixed mode) But for some new tool I need to install the jdk-8u45-linux-x64.tar.gz. So how can I remove old one and install the new one? Most of us believe that it is difficult to remove/uninstall (Oracle Java & openJDK) from Linux box. Today i am going to show how easy it is. As per my experience, i have installed JAVA many times in different distributions and removed/uninstalled safely without any issue. Remove Older Versions of Java. The applet will check your version of Java and then remove out-of-date versions. If there are older versions, you will get a message showing you the versions and giving you the ability to uninstall them. Click on the Uninstall Selected Versions button to remove the older versions.

Looking for a way to get rid of Java on your Windows or Mac machine? Though essential to some web users, most people do not need to risk running Java on their machines because of all the security vulnerabilities associated with Java.

In this article, I’m going to talk about the steps you need to take in order to completely remove all traces of Java from your Windows machine. The process for Mac is a bit different, so you can scroll down the Remove Java on Mac section if you are running OS X.

Note that the newer versions of Java (Java 8v20 and higher) have a built-in tool for uninstalling older Java versions automatically, but sometimes even this tool doesn’t get rid of everything. Also, it keeps the latest version installed, which you might not want either.

Is Java Installed?

You can check whether you have Java installed or not in Windows by going to the Control Panel and looking for the Java icon. If you see it there, that means you have Java installed.

Using this Control Panel option, you can also disable Java in your web browser without uninstalling it. I’ll explain that option below also. If you go back to the Control Panel and click on Programs and Features, you can see all the different versions of Java installed on your computer.

So what’s next? Well, the first thing I do when removing Java on Windows is to uninstall the older versions first.

Remove Older Versions of Java

To get rid of the older versions, you can download and install the latest version of Java, which will automatically check for older versions and then install the latest version or you can run the Java Uninstall Tool.

The applet will check your version of Java and then remove out-of-date versions. If there are older versions, you will get a message showing you the versions and giving you the ability to uninstall them.

Click on the Uninstall Selected Versions button to remove the older versions. As you can see, I don’t need Java 8 Update 60 because I have the latest Java 8 Update 65 installed. Now that you only have the latest version, we can do one of two things: either disable Java or uninstall it.

Disable Java

If you need to occasionally use Java for certain websites, but don’t need it enabled all the time, you can disable it instead of uninstalling. To do this, open the Control Panel, click on Java and then click on the Security tab.

Uncheck the Enable Java content in the browser box to disable Java in Internet Explorer. It’s worth noting that Chrome doesn’t even support Java anymore since version 42, so you don’t have to worry about it in that browser.

For Firefox, you have to click on Tools, then Add-ons and select Plugins. Click on Java Platform and then click on Disable. Note that even though Java is disabled, it can become outdated and still present a security vulnerability to your computer since it is installed.

Uninstall Java in Windows

To uninstall Java, first remove the older versions like shown above and then go to Control Panel and Programs and Features. Click on the latest Java version listed there and click on Uninstall.

Technically, this is all you should have to do, but if you really want to get rid of every trace of Java, I recommend using a freeware app called JavaRa. Once you download it, just run the application. You’ll see a couple of icons, but the one we want to use is Remove Java Runtime.

On the first screen, it’ll show you that the uninstaller was not found, which is fine since we uninstalled all versions of Java. Just click on the Next button.

The most important part of this program is Step 2. Here you want to click the Perform Removal Routine button, which will remove any leftover files, folders and Java registry entries.

Even after uninstalling Java using its own tools, JavaRa was able to remove 12 more items that were left behind.

Click Next and you’ll see a button to download the latest version. Unless you want to reinstall Java, just click Next and then click Finish on the next screen. Now Java is completely removed from your Windows system.

Remove Java on Mac

On Macs, everything is pretty much the same, except for the uninstall process. You can see whether Java is installed on your Mac in pretty much the same way as Windows. Just open up System Preferences and check to see if there is a Java icon at the bottom.

If the Java icon is there, that means you have Java installed on OS X. Also, just as in Windows, you can choose to keep Java installed, but disable it in Safari if you like. The first way is to click on the Java icon in System Preferences, which will open the Java Control Panel, which looks exactly like the one in Windows. Click on the Security tab and then uncheck the Enable Java content in browser box.

The other way is to disable Java in Safari directly. To do that, open Safari and then go to Preferences.

Click on the Security tab and then click on the Plug-in Settings button at the very bottom next to Internet plug-ins.

You should see Java in the list and unchecking the box will disable Java in Safari. If you want to uninstall Java on OS X, it’s a bit technical. First, open up the Terminal by clicking on Spotlight and typing in Terminal or by going to Applications – Utilities and then Terminal.

Now copy and paste in the following commands one at a time and press Enter after pasting each command.

When you press enter, you will be asked to enter your administrator password. If everything went well, you won’t see any output.

If you go and check in System Preferences, the Java icon should be gone. Also, if you go to the plugins section in Safari, it will also be gone from the list of installed plugins. That’s about it for removing Java on Macs. If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment. Enjoy!

Scenario:

I have customers ask me sometimes how application supersedence works and one of the more common questions that I get around supersedence is customers who want to move up to a new major version of Java runtime environment.

A major version upgrade of Java runtime environment will not remove an older major versions that’s installed. Example: you want to upgrade Java 6 Update X to Java 7 Update X. Some early versions of Java 6 won’t be uninstalled when a newer version gets installed as well. All versions of Java 5 will require a manual uninstall when installing a newer version of Java. This is a scenario where application supersedence can help us out.

Update: Noticing a lot of comments of people saying use the WMIC method: wmic product where “X' call uninstall /nointeractive method within WMI. I don’t recommend this because when using this method it will reconfigure every product and can cause issues you can see this in the application event log.

How this can be accomplished:

Remove Old Java Versions Windows 7

There are a few things that will need to be configured for this to work. We will need an application and deployment type for Java 7 Runtime (Update 55 during this post) and an application and deployment type for Java 5/6 (All Versions) for uninstallation purpose only. All versions means we will need to create a detection method in our deployment type that will check out for any version of Java runtime 6 and 5 (You could easily check for older versions as well).

Here is my application for Java 7 Runtime is called “Java 7 Update 55”. I have one deployment type named “Java 7 Update 55”.

Delete Old Java Versions

Here is my application “All Java 6/5 Runtimes (Detection / Uninstall Only)” and my deployment type “All Java 5/6 Runtimes Uninstall Only”

The deployment type “All Java 5/6 Runtimes Uninstall Only” the source location for a script I created. Notice: the install program is bogus since this deployment type is not ever going to be used to install Java runtime. The uninstall program is referencing the VBScript.

Remove Old Java Versions Silently

This script will loop though the uninstall hive (x86 and x64) of the registry looking for the displayname value’s. If the displayname contains any values you enter in the AppsToUninstall.txt file the script will search for the UninstallString value. If the uninstall value contains MSIEXEC (Windows Installer based installations only), it will parse the value to get the product code. The script will then call “msiexec /X%ProductCode% /qn REBOOT=REALLYSUPPRESS” to perform the uninstall.

Here’s what I am using for Java 5/6 detection and uninstall:

The deployment type “All Java 5/6 Runtimes Uninstall Only” detection method is using the following:

Remove Old Versions Java Command Line

  • HKLM - SOFTWAREJavaSoftJava Runtime Environment1.6 (or)
  • HKLM - SOFTWAREJavaSoftJava Runtime Environment1.6 (With this registry key is associated with a 32-bit application on 64-bit systems).
  • HKLM - SOFTWAREJavaSoftJava Runtime Environment1.5 (or)
  • HKLM - SOFTWAREJavaSoftJava Runtime Environment1.5 (With this registry key is associated with a 32-bit application on 64-bit systems).

This detection methods will allow us to detect either x86 or x64 based installs of Java runtime 6 or 5.

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In the properties of the Java 7 Update 55 application, I specified a Supersedence relationship to the Java 5/6 application and used the uninstall option. When Java 7 Update 55 is being installed from ConfigMgr, it will check the detection method for the Java 5/6 deployment type and if it's detection will use the uninstall script before installing the latest Java version.


To test this out, I have a Windows 7 x64 machine that has the following installed:

  • Java Runtime Environment 5 Update 13 x64
  • Java Runtime Environment 5 Update 16 x64
  • Java Runtime Environment 5 Update 15 x86
  • Java Runtime Environment 6 Update 41 x86
  • Java Runtime Environment 6 Update 45 x64

I went ahead and requested the Java 7 Update 55 from the application catalog. I a made an available deployment to a user collection for this test scenario.

We can see in AppEnforce.log that the Java 5/6 deployment type was found. We will then call the uninstall command from the deployment type for Java 5/6 (The Uninstall VBScript).

Powershell Remove Old Java Versions

The Uninstall.vbs script will also log everything it does to %temp%UninstallScript.log. In my case, this will be %Windir%TempUninstallScript.log since the script is executed in SYSTEM context from ConfigMgr.

Uninstall Java 8

If all goes well with the uninstall of Java 5/6 (or whatever you enter in the text file), you should have the latest version of Java 7 Update 55 in add and remove programs!

Wrapping Up:

Remove Old Java Versions

In this post, we went over the process of superseding all versions a Java 6/5 runtime with Java 7 Update 55. The script is available Here to Download(Use at your own risk). It’s especially important to be careful with the AppsToUninstall.txt. This does a contains search. For example, if you add just Java to the text file the script would uninstall any application that was installed by windows installer where the display name *contains* Java in it. The script should be able to work to uninstall other applications as long as they were installed by windows installer (MSI).

Disclaimer: The information on this site is provided 'AS IS' with no warranties, confers no rights, and is not supported by the authors or Microsoft Corporation. Use of any included script samples are subject to the terms specified in the Terms of Use

Updates:

Remove Old Java Versions Mac

Version 1.1 (2.11.15) - The script will now close if the AppsToUnisntall.txt is not in the same directory

Remove Old Java Versions Ubuntu

Version 1.2 (5.27.15) - The script will ignore empty lines in the AppsToUnisntall.txt