Java questions

[shanarie]

Not sure that I'm in the right forum but I have question, can I remove all past installs of java and leave the most recent (I think it's 1.6 something) without causing problems? In Add/Remove programs I have all of the following:

J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 5
J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 10
J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 11

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment 6 Update 1
Java(TM) 6 Update 2
Java(TM) 6 Update 3

I had another one but I accidentally removed it and have not had any issues so I was wondering if all of these are really necessary.

Also, have had issues with one program and was told that it may be the version of Java that I have installed. I'm guessing that Java 6 update 3 is the latest version but I really have no idea. It was also suggested that maybe there were two Java programs running and conflicting with each other. I cannot find another on this computer but I think I have that issue on my nieces computer.

She is taking online classes and when she installed all of the software, she was instructed to install a new Java program. I wasn't there so I have no idea what she installed or what was there to begin with. I've never had to deal with Java, both computers came with it already installed. The only problem I've noticed on her computer is that I cannot login to pogo.com with my username (paid account). They use the free pogo and have no problem but when I try to get into my account it won't work. If I remember correctly the first time I tried it told me there was an issue with Java. I attempted to find what it was talking about but I don't want to screw up her programs for school so I left it the way it is. I swear she told me that she had to install SunJava but I couldn't find a program with that name so I don't know what to do.

Any suggestions??
Thanks

[oracle128]

Java 6 update 3 is the latest version available to the public.
Multiple versions installed don't cause problems. Multiple versions running simultaneously don't cause problems as far as I know, and I've run several versions simulatenously without problem.

There are no changes in Java 6 that would break anything that was programmed in Java 5. However, if you have any programs installed on your machine that are specifically looking for a particular Java installation (eg it's looking specifically for Java 6 update 1), it will fail to run. However this shouldn't be the case with 99% of programs, they should just use whatever Java version was last installed, and it certainly isn't the case with web browsers, they will use the last installed version too.

Easiest way to tell, rename the folders of older Java versions, and run any programs that use Java. If they run, you can uninstall those versions.

"SunJava" is Java. Sun is the developer of Java.