Lots of Java installations - HELP

Question

Hi,
Firstly, appologies if this is the wrong forum.
I have about 4-5 applications on my PC, each one has it's own \jre sub-directory and each one is a different version.
I also have a seperate Java installation, in its own directory structure, which is always kept upto date.
I run a software inspection program that checks for out of date programs, controls, etc. and it keeps highlighting the Java installations as insecure, bad, or just, out of date.
My question is, can I just delete the "old" java sub-directories from the applications and expect them to work by picking up on the JAVA environmental variables, - or, does it depend on the application ?
Thanks & Regards,

Answer 1

For the most part, a current Java version will run older Java programs. Some programs are written so as to require a certain Java version, and won't run on newer versions - however, this is not common, and there is no way (other than program documentation to know if that is the case.)
Java's JRE installations involve Registry entries that need to be removed by uninstalling Java. Never just delete Java directories unless you have already performed an uninstall and are cleaning up something that is left over.
Uninstall in the reverse order of install. My suggestion (without knowing what exists) is to uninstall all Java versions, and then go to java.com and install the current version. The current version will probably run all of your existing programs - and it will use existing environment variables, etc (which should be verified, of course.)