Have you ever looked in your Add/Remove Programs applet and wondered why there were multiple copies of Java in it? That's because the Java installer doesn't remove old versions. Do 10 updates and you'll have 11 copies of Java installed. And they all take up a lot of space.
But an update to Java, currently in beta, will fix this problem. The current version of Java (I think) is Java 6 Update 7. A document on the Java web site says of Java 6 Update 10 that:
For current users of Java SE, the JRE update mechanism has also been improved, using a patch-in-place mechanism that translates in a faster and more reliable update process (the patch in place mechanism will take effect for end users who upgrade from this update release or later to a new update release). As an added benefit, follow-on update releases will no longer be listed as separate items in the Windows "Add or Remove Programs" dialog.
Exactly what this means is not clear; will it clean out the old versions? But it seems to say that it will solve the problem going forward. In fact, a beta is available from the page for downloading.
Do we really have to wait 3 updates for this? The page says the release is scheduled for Summer/Fall of 08. We'll see.
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