(The browser I use is Firefox and up to date fyi. I also turned off my firewall antivirus and adware blocker prior to all the steps I have mentioned previously. I went into Firefox Addons and Plugins to see if I needed to 'enable' Java in some way but it wasn't listed.
I then went to to use the uninstall tool for removal of older versions of Java and got this message: 'Java is disabled or not installed'. browser, Java control panel, security settings) or the Java plug-in is blocked by the browser.' If you have installed Java and there is an error with the verification, there could be a configuration issue (eg. I then went to and clicked on 'Do I have Java', and I get this message: 'We are unable to verify if Java is currently installed and enabled in your browser. The IBM ® SDK, Java Technology Edition, Version 8 is an IBM Developer Kit and is fully compatible with the Oracle Platform Java Standard Edition (Java SE) 8 application programming interfaces (APIs).
It is not possible to install an older build.'
I opened it and got this error message, 'A newer build of this version of Java already exists on your system. I then attempted to update to Java 8 Update 31 by downloading the exe file to my desktop. I checked to see if Java was gone from add/remove programs, and it was. This morning I removed Java from my computer with Revo Uninstaller and rebooted.