JAVA updates

[Coldicote]

I frequently see notifications telling me that Java updates are available but I'm never sure whether to accept them and what use they would be if I did. Often I just delete them. Am I missing anything worth having and what is their purpose please?

[MarkRae]

http://www.theanswerb.../Question1070294.html

[Coldicote]

Thanks Mark, you've pointed me to some interesting references. I'll think about it a bit longer but at the moment I'm not convinced of the need for Java - I get enough clutter on my PC as it is!

[VHG]

Some web sites do need Java, and to be honest it is quite small.

[Coldicote]

VHG. Thank you. When you say 'some web sites do need Java', does this mean needed in order to create a certain type of web site, or that it's needed in order to view them?

[MarkRae]

Java allows web programmers to do things that are not possible without it. Generally speaking, this provides greater interaction with the hardware and software of the machine that the web browser is running on.

A good example of this is GoToMyPC, which allows one machine to control another machine remotely over the public Internet or an internal intranet.

Go here: http://java.com/en/download/testjava.jsp - what do you see?

[Coldicote]

Oh dear! I see 'Old versions of Java have been detected on your system'; and there are lot of things to be checked through. This will take time but I'll follow it through and thank you very much for drawing my attention to the information.