If this is a Windows system(and the option “uninstall Java” isn’t an option), the following (no doubt…purely accidentally…not well emphasized) configuration change should make your life incrementally more bearable:
Start -> Control Panel -> View By(choose either ‘small icons’ or ‘large icons’ -> Java
When the Java control panel applet opens, choose the “advanced” tab, scroll down to the very bottom and check “Suppress sponsor offers when installing or updating Java”.
I haven’t found this to be 100% reliable in field trials on large numbers (~500) of machines(I’m sure Larry’s crack engineers are working on isolating the cause); but it does seem to work sometimes.
If you prefer to do it the hands-on way(or need a method for taming large numbers of machines) go to HKCU\Software\JavaSoft\DeploymentProperties and create a new string within that key that has the name 'install.disable.sponsor.offers" and the value “true”(both without the quotation marks, obviously).
Then pronounce the thricefold execration upon Larry Ellison and all his works.
