Adobe Problems and ? about J2se

Hi,

i've got a few things going on and really would like some help. First of all, after looking through countless forums trying to get precise information about J2se (java), I can't seem to find the answer i'm looking for. Why the heck is this program so large? It's the biggest thing i've got on my pc. Is this something the pc needs to run? What would happen if uninstalled?
Next my question is something that will not go away... it's been an ongoing problem for the last 2 weeks. After letting my 12 year old go to his "my space" on my pc, adobe reader would randomly start opening. Trying to open a file, I found that it would not function. I tried to uninstall it. I got this error:
The patch package could not be opened. Verify that the patch package exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer Patch Package

so... I tried installing again thinking it was corrupt. After going through the motions, it got to the last part of the set up and then told me that adobe was already on my pc and set up would now exit. So I turned to adobe and still have yet to hear back from them. I then contacted Microsoft to ask them what the deal was. I got a lot of answers, the one I got most was telling me to download windows install clean up and blah blah blah... that has not worked either. So now i've not only got the reader trying to open randomly but also the photoshop program that was installed with it during my tries at fixing the problem. Now that program won't uninstall either. I've also tried restoring the computer to no avail. I am at my wits end and I totally do NOT want to have to reformat my computer. I have so much crap on here that I just do not want to have to deal with saving everything (pictures and music). PLEASE help. I'm going nuts.

HootieFan

[bigal]

Go into the "add and remove programs" to uninstall all your adobe programs. Then grab the latest adobe reader from a download site and install it. If you have already tried the uninstall this way, look for the adobe folder in the programs menu (or directly on the c drive in an adobe folder) to look for an uninstall application. Lastly, delete folders that have adobe materials in them. The next to last thing you should attempt is to edit the registry to remove adobe references, but this is dangerous and may render your system unstable if you do something wrong. Have you looked at the startup programs that run? If not, run "msconfig" and deselect any adobe-related programs. Then try the clean install again.

bigal