Sorry I am not familiar with ME in particular but in XP there is an option via Add/ Remove programs to
Set Program Access & Defaults
Here there is the choice of Sun Java or Microsoft JVM
Although I am also informed that since XP's SP1 that the Microsoft JVM was disabled. (this was due to their lawsuit with Sun Microsystems).
The installation of Sun Java was probably all you really needed to do.
There is a published registry edit to remove Microsoft JVM.
If you are comfortable editing your registry & would like it let us know.
Some further links from Sun:
Switching between the Microsoft VM and the Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
Trojan.ByteVerify
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