How do I get JAVA to work again?

[bizzybody]

I have the latest JAVA version, the latest Firefox version. I've added a security exception for the IP address of my printer. I've clicked allow and remember and the run button and checked the box to not ask again - but it still refuses to allow the JAVA apps in my Hewlett Packard JetDirect print server to run.

It is NOT a "security risk". It's a piece of hardware on my own local network that I NEED TO HAVE WORKING but due to some  essentially mythical "security risk" that has no practical exploit, Oracle has taken the lazy way by hobbling their own product instead of actually fixing things.

Now, how do I crack this nut open and force it to actually function like it did before Oracle went all nutzoid with an overabundance of over-caution?

[bizzybody]

I got the last non-paranoid version of JAVA jre-7u45-windows-x64.exe from http://uni-smr.ac.ru/archive/dev/java/JRE/7/JRE-7.45/ and have found sites showing how to install two versions of JAVA in order to run local JAVA apps that are on the same computer. I've also found and downloaded the x32 version.

Nothing so far on how to make it use a different version of JAVA when the source of the app is either on the WWW or somewhere else on a local network.

Edited March 20, 2016 by bizzybody