Computer Related > Cleaning up Windows XP Computing Issues
Thread Author: sherlock47 Replies: 6

 Cleaning up Windows XP - sherlock47
To gain a little extra life out of my 'second home' machine I have been deleting little used programs to gain additional disc space on the woefully small HD.

Can you safely delete all the Java update files which are shown as 'programs' - I am al ittle wary of ending up with adisabled machine as my backup options here are limited.

This includes file names like
J2SE Runtime Enviroment 5.0 Update 4, 6, 8, 9,
J2SE Runtime Enviroment SE v1.4.2_03
Java 7 Update21
Java(TM) 6 Update 2
Java(TM) 6 Update 22, 26, 3, 5, 7

All of the files are about 130MB so would appear to be newer complete versions rather tha incremental updates.
 Cleaning up Windows XP - Zero
Uninstall java, remove any bits the uninstall misses, then download and install the latest version

Removing bits of it would be risky
 Cleaning up Windows XP - sherlock47
Thanks for that advice - if you hear nothing from me you will know that it has crashed terminally after the uninstalls (:
 Cleaning up Windows XP - sherlock47
Rather than use the uninstall Program options from the Control Panel I downloaded the Java uninstall application from Java directly.

www.java.com/en/download/uninstallapplet.jsp

However Java 6 does not uninstall!

15/08/13 14:37: Java 2 Runtime Environment, SE v1.4.2_03 was uninstalled successfully
15/08/13 14:37: J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 3 was uninstalled successfully
15/08/13 14:37: J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 4 was uninstalled successfully
15/08/13 14:38: J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 6 was uninstalled successfully
15/08/13 14:38: J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 8 was uninstalled successfully
15/08/13 14:38: Not all requested versions were removed


They tell you to unistall manually from the Control Panel.

Last edited by: pmh on Thu 15 Aug 13 at 13:37
 Cleaning up Windows XP - sherlock47
Despite telling you that it has not removed copies of Java 6 there is now nothing Java 6 related showing in the CP. And I have gained 1GB of disc space - so the machine carries on!
 Cleaning up Windows XP - Victorbox
After all this uninstalling also download and run the free Ccleaner and also use it's Registry Cleaner as well if you set a system restore point first. It will clean out loads of unused files.
 Cleaning up Windows XP - busbee
Even after CCleaner has been used, System Mechanic will still typically find another 140 or so registry bits to remove.

The July 2013 issue of PC ADVISOR had a disk with a 6 months free licence copy on it, if you can get your hands on that disk. It does very well in the clean-up reviews.

I was looking in my registry a few days ago, using Registry Detective, and there were 1000 entries for VLC! None of those were in the 140 it deleted.

But it must be getting something right. It is not the first time I have let it delete that number of entries. The XP Pro machine still seems OK and is not slow.

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