Looking for a way to get rid of Java on your Windows or Mac computer? While this is important for some web users, most people do not need to risk running Java on their machines because of all the security vulnerabilities associated with Java.
In this article, I will walk you through the steps you need to take to completely remove all traces of Java from your Windows computer. The process is slightly different for Mac, so you can scroll down to the “Remove Java on Mac” section if you’re using OS X.
Note that newer Java versions (Java 8v20 and above) have a built-in tool to automatically remove old Java versions, but sometimes even this tool doesn’t get rid of everything. Plus, it keeps the latest version installed, which you may not need.
Is Java installed?
You can check if you have Java installed on Windows by going to Control Panel and looking for the Java icon. If you see it, then you have Java installed.
Using this control panel option, you can also disable Java in your web browser without uninstalling it. I’ll also explain this option below. If you go back to Control Panel and click Programs and Features, you will see all the different versions of Java installed on your computer.
So what’s next? Well, the first thing I do when uninstalling Java on Windows is uninstalling old versions first.
Remove old versions of Java
To get rid of older versions, you can download and install the latest Java version, which will automatically check for older versions and then install the latest version, or you can run the Java Uninstall Tool
The applet will check your Java version and then remove outdated versions. If there are older versions, you will receive a message showing the versions and giving you the option to remove them.
Click the Remove Selected Versions button to remove older versions. As you can see, I don’t need Java 8 Update 60 because I have the latest Java 8 Update 65 installed. Now that you only have the latest version, we can do one of two things: disable Java or uninstall it.
Java is disabled
If you need to use Java from time to time for certain websites, but do not need it to be enabled all the time, you can disable it instead of uninstalling it. To do this, open Control Panel, click Java and then go to the Security tab.
Clear the Enable Java content in browser check box to disable Java in Internet Explorer. It’s worth noting that Chrome doesn’t even support Java since version 42, so you don’t have to worry about that in this browser.
For Firefox, you have to click “Tools”, then “Add-ons” and select “Plugins”. Click Java Platform and then click Disable. Please note that even though Java is disabled, it may be outdated and still present a security vulnerability on your computer from the moment it was installed.
Uninstall Java from Windows
To uninstall Java, first uninstall the old versions as shown above and then go to Control Panel and Programs and Features. Click on the latest Java version listed there and click Uninstall.
Technically, that’s all you need to do, but if you really want to get rid of all traces of Java, I recommend using a free application called JavaRa Once downloaded, just launch the app. You will see some icons, but we want to use Remove Java Runtime Environment.
The first screen will show that the uninstaller was not found, which is normal since we have removed all Java versions. Just click the Next button.
The most important part of this program is step 2. Here you want to click the “Perform uninstall procedure” button, which will remove any remaining files, folders and Java registry entries.
Even after removing Java with its own tools, JavaRa was able to remove 12 more elements that were left behind.
Click Next and you will see a button to download the latest version. If you don’t want to reinstall Java, just click Next and then click Finish on the next screen. Java is now completely removed from your Windows system.
Remove Java on Mac
It’s pretty much the same on Mac except for the uninstall process. You can see if Java is installed on your Mac in much the same way as Windows. Just open System Preferences and check if there is a Java icon at the bottom.
If there is a Java icon, it means you have Java installed on OS X. Just like on Windows, you can leave Java installed, but disable it in Safari if you wish. The first way is to click on the Java icon in System Preferences, which will open the Java Control Panel, which looks exactly like it does on Windows. Click the Security tab and uncheck the Enable Java content in browser checkbox.
Another way is to directly disable Java in Safari. To do this, open Safari and go to Preferences.
Click the Security tab, and then click the Plugin Settings button at the very bottom next to Internet Plugins.
You should see Java listed, and unchecking the box will disable Java in Safari. If you want to uninstall Java on OS X, this is a bit of a technical matter. First open Terminal by clicking Spotlight and typing Terminal, or by selecting Applications – Utilities and then Terminal.
Now copy and paste the following commands one at a time and press Enter after pasting each command.
sudo rm -fr / Library / Internet Plug-Ins / JavaAppletPlugin.plugin sudo rm -fr / Library / PreferencePanes / JavaControlPanel.prefpane
When you hit Enter, you will be prompted for your administrator password. If everything went well, you won’t see any results.
If you go and go to System Preferences, the Java icon should disappear. Also, if you go to the plugins section in Safari, it also disappears from the list of installed plugins. That’s it for Java uninstallation on Mac. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to leave comments. Enjoy!
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