Java is a bit tricky. A lot of applications use it, and many of them come bundled with their own version of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) — which they happily and oh-so-helpfully install on your system. This leads to multiple and redundant installs of Java on your computer, each of which may contain potential security threats, and may well leave you scratching your head as to whether you can or should delete them. Wonder no more… JavaRa is a free, light-weight utility that will clean up the redundant versions of the Java runtime, as well as update you to the latest version — and it has a few other tricks up its sleeves, besides.
There is no installation for JavaRa. It’s just a simple executable with some language options (English, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Finnish). Just click and go — though you may want to run it in Administrator mode for Windows Vista and Windows 7. The buttons are fairly self-explanatory: Search for Updates will search for the latest Java version, and Remove Older Versions will clean up your system.
If you’re looking to do a little bit more, click on Additional Tasks. You’ll get a pop-up that allows you to remove startup entries, other useless Java bits like logs and temp files, as well as get rid of the Sun Download Manager, and a few other goodies.
JavaRa is a great little tool and can be found for free on SourceForge.
