By that thinking, you should completely uninstall anything that is not necessary to run Internet Explorer or Microsoft Office. If you actually do novel things

By that thinking, you should completely uninstall anything that is not necessary to run Internet Explorer or Microsoft Office. If you actually do novel things with your computer from time to time, you are likely to run into Java sooner or later. If you run the same three programs all the time, sure, ruthlessly uninstall everything else. Even on a desktop where I am not currently using any Java apps, I see no reason to go out of my way to uninstall it if it's already there. It isn't hurting me, and installing it is enough of a pain that avoiding that hassle is a win.