How many of these Java installations do I need?

[bbernardini]

My work computer is running a bit slow, so I've been checking the installed programs to see what can be removed from the machine. I've noticed that there's two different Java installations on there:

J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 3
J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 6

Do I really need both of these? I definitely have to have Java on here, as I need it for my online masters classes. Any input you folks can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[mainegreen]

1. You're probably still only running one java though.

I would not recommend uninstalling any of the updates. What you need to do is see what processes are running and how much memory they are taking up. Do a CTRL-ALT-DEL and choose 'Task Manager'.
In the task manager window go to the 'Processes' tab and sort first by 'CPU' to see if anything is gobbling CPU cycles and then by 'Mem Usage' to see if anything is taking up a ridiculous amount of memory. The 'image name' is the process/application that is may or may not be taking up to much memory/cpu cycles.