Disabling in your browser will mitigate the majority of threats, but certainly not all. And you still need to keep it updated. It's likely you'd not have an issue that way, but certainly the risk exists
A Guy
I would just uninstall it. If its not running in the browser, its not running at all most likely for you. So just uninstall it.
A few exceptions are programs like openoffice and libre office use java.
Agree with A Guy (Bill). Having it increases the risk. You can remove it - Just install it when you need it
Keeping it updated just wastes your time, takes time to download, etc.
See if this tool helps you remove ALL of java (unlike the windows uninstaller, which doesn't) - http://java.com/en/download/uninstallapplet.jsp
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