A few days ago, I planned to uninstall Java because I don't need it anymore. I use an uninstaller named 'Revo Uninstaller' to do a thorough uninstallation of older versions of Java.
I was able to uninstall Java 7 Update 67 using Revo Uninstaller. Revo Uninstaller wasn't able to uninstall Java 8 Update 30-something and I don't know why. It was showing some error about "Windows Installer" so I just used the Control Panel's uninstallation tool. The Control Panel was able to uninstall it but after that, a number of processes named "Java Web Start Launcher" suddenly appeared on the Task Manager. There were many! I decided to shut down the computer because I needed to sleep.
The next day, I woke up and tried to uninstall another old version named "Java 8 Update 40" by using Revo Uninstaller. The uninstallation took a while then I noticed that my PC started running slow. So I went to the Task Manager and I saw that "Java Web Start Launcher" appearing again and again. It kept on creating a lot of them. Every time I scroll down, I see more and more processes of it. So I went to a task manager alternative named "Process Explorer" and tried to kill the Process Tree. It didn't work. It just kept on creating more. They took a lot of my CPU usage. My computer went slow so I held down the power button of my laptop to shut down my PC.
I'd like to know why this is happening. I don't want to uninstall Java 8 Update 40 and the last one named Java 8 Update 45 in the fear of this might happen again.
Could this be fixed? Is there a way to uninstall these Java versions without having another problem like this? Could I uninstall them manually? Like deleting some files in the Program Files folder in the C: drive or maybe removing some registry entries?
Thanks, I hope for an immediate answer.
I'm running Windows 8.1.
Best Answer
Recently I experienced it similarly. I changed (not upgraded yet?) Windows7 to Windows10 and installed many Java related packages (like eclipse, Java SE runtime 32/64 etc.) Suddenly, the blue circle next to the cursor kept on spinning while I was not doing anything. So many Java(TM) Web Start Launcher processes running according to Task Manager. Even though they took 0~1% CPU time each, and they caused CPU and memory usage to reach 100%.
If this is your case, the following may help you, as it did me; (Please bear with me that the following steps are based on Windows 10.)
Dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
After this work, my computer has been running fine for last two days. Then I went back to the msconfig and I turned on the services I really need such as OneDrive and Dropbox stuff. (a debtor)<><