I just reinstalled my Compaq XP Home op system on a new hard drive on my
Compaq Presario, a fairly recent model purchased last year. Then I installed
all of the updates which have been published at the HP website, then SP2,
and finally the latest windows updates. All seems OK, but somehow in the
process I picked up something called "java runtime console" from Sun
Microsystems, I believe. I definitely did NOT install it intentionally, nor
give it permission to be installed. It had to have been bundled with the HP
updates, or maybe came preinstalled somehow on this new Maxtor hard drive,
or MS slipped it into their SP2 CD or recent windows updates. I really don't
know where it came from, but those seem to be the only possibilities.

I'm vaguely familiar with sun java, and doubt that it was harmful, however I
didn't like how it was done! I was computing here as usual, and all of a
sudden, out of the blue, a little cup of coffee icon appeared in Systray and
starting doing its thing. It seemed pretty insistent. I went along with it,
and it downloaded a lengthy update, which it seemed to want to do. At that
point I might still have kept it, but was unable to get the console to
accept my settings. It insisted on "automatic" updates, which I unselected,
but it wouldn't stick. So I've uninstalled the whole shebang, and won't miss
it a bit!

End of story, I hope...
--
Jester6