Win XP Home SP3 fully-updated
I visited Control Panel today for the first time in quite a while and
noticed that I now have two Add/Remove Program icons, both of which
are identical and work normally . Can anyone tell me how this might
have happened, please, and if it is possible to remove one of them
safely and easily?

Many thanks
Kate

Kate wrote:
> Win XP Home SP3 fully-updated
> I visited Control Panel today for the first time in quite a while and
> noticed that I now have two Add/Remove Program icons, both of which
> are identical and work normally . Can anyone tell me how this might
> have happened, please, and if it is possible to remove one of them
> safely and easily?
>
> Many thanks
> Kate

This might work.. look for more than one copy of
C:\WINDOWS\system32\appwiz.cpl

Delete one.

--
Joe =o)

"Kate" <@*slamaspam*.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:%23hbRE%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Win XP Home SP3 fully-updated
> I visited Control Panel today for the first time in quite a while
> and
> noticed that I now have two Add/Remove Program icons, both of which
> are identical and work normally . Can anyone tell me how this might
> have happened, please, and if it is possible to remove one of them
> safely and easily?
>
> Many thanks
> Kate
>

PS : I see that I have two appwiz.cpl files in Windows/system32, one
of which is appwiz(2).cpl. I tried renaming this to appwiz(2)OLD.cpl,
but although the icon in Control Panel has changed, the darn thing
still works properly! Whilst in the system32 folder, I noticed that
there are many files with the same names but with (2),(3) or (4) even,
after them...

Kate

"Kate" <@*slamaspam*.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Kate" <@*slamaspam*.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:%23hbRE%(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Win XP Home SP3 fully-updated
> > I visited Control Panel today for the first time in quite a while
> > and
> > noticed that I now have two Add/Remove Program icons, both of which
> > are identical and work normally . Can anyone tell me how this might
> > have happened, please, and if it is possible to remove one of them
> > safely and easily?
> >
> > Many thanks
> > Kate
> >
>
> PS : I see that I have two appwiz.cpl files in Windows/system32, one
> of which is appwiz(2).cpl. I tried renaming this to appwiz(2)OLD.cpl,
> but although the icon in Control Panel has changed, the darn thing
> still works properly! Whilst in the system32 folder, I noticed that
> there are many files with the same names but with (2),(3) or (4) even,
> after them...
>
> Kate
>

If "appwiz(2).cpl" still functioned as the normal Control Panel applet, then
changing the "(2)" to "(2)OLD" isn't likely to change much; try changing the
whole name to, say, appwiz(2)cpl.old instead.

"Kate" <@*slamaspam*.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Kate" <@*slamaspam*.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:%23hbRE%(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Win XP Home SP3 fully-updated
>> I visited Control Panel today for the first time in quite a while
>> and
>> noticed that I now have two Add/Remove Program icons, both of which
>> are identical and work normally . Can anyone tell me how this might
>> have happened, please, and if it is possible to remove one of them
>> safely and easily?
>>
>> Many thanks
>> Kate
>>
>
> PS : I see that I have two appwiz.cpl files in Windows/system32, one
> of which is appwiz(2).cpl. I tried renaming this to appwiz(2)OLD.cpl,
> but although the icon in Control Panel has changed, the darn thing
> still works properly! Whilst in the system32 folder, I noticed that
> there are many files with the same names but with (2),(3) or (4) even,
> after them...
>
> Kate
>
Rename it to appwiz(2).old instead. You also might want to scan with an
anti-virus and anti-malware scanner.

SC Tom

Kate wrote:
> Win XP Home SP3 fully-updated
> I visited Control Panel today for the first time in quite a while and
> noticed that I now have two Add/Remove Program icons, both of which
> are identical and work normally . Can anyone tell me how this might
> have happened, please, and if it is possible to remove one of them
> safely and easily?
>
> Many thanks
> Kate
>
If both of the cpl files work you can just delete the second one. I'd
suggest completely deleting it (shift + Del), not trying to send it to
the recycle bin itself <grin>

Or rename the extension as others have suggested, then, when satisfied
that the remaining cpl file still works properly, delete the extraneous
cpl file.

Bill

"Bill Sharpe" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:e$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Kate wrote:
>> Win XP Home SP3 fully-updated
>> I visited Control Panel today for the first time in quite a while
>> and
>> noticed that I now have two Add/Remove Program icons, both of which
>> are identical and work normally . Can anyone tell me how this might
>> have happened, please, and if it is possible to remove one of them
>> safely and easily?
>>
>> Many thanks
>> Kate
>>
> If both of the cpl files work you can just delete the second one.
> I'd suggest completely deleting it (shift + Del), not trying to send
> it to the recycle bin itself <grin>
>
> Or rename the extension as others have suggested, then, when
> satisfied that the remaining cpl file still works properly, delete
> the extraneous cpl file.
>
> Bill

Thanks for the replies. I renamed the second file, using .old instead
of .cpl, as suggested, and one of the thumbnails has gone but the
other one still works, asmuch as the "list is populated". I shall run
a virus check, just in case.

IIRC, one of the ways in which XP differs from, say, Win98, is that
when a program wants to install a file which other programs need,
instead of overwriting the existing one - and maybe rendering a
program inoperable because it is a different version - XP allows more
than one version to be installed. Could this be why I have so many
files with the same names, but with numbers after them, as I described
in my second post? It wouldn`t explain why I had two Add/Remove
Programs, though.

Thanks again
Kate

"Kate" <@*slamaspam*.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:%238nuH$(E-Mail Removed)...

> Thanks for the replies. I renamed the second file, using .old
> instead
> of .cpl, as suggested, and one of the thumbnails has gone but the
> other one still works, asmuch as the "list is populated". I shall
> run
> a virus check, just in case.
>
> IIRC, one of the ways in which XP differs from, say, Win98, is that
> when a program wants to install a file which other programs need,
> instead of overwriting the existing one - and maybe rendering a
> program inoperable because it is a different version - XP allows
> more
> than one version to be installed. Could this be why I have so many
> files with the same names, but with numbers after them, as I
> described
> in my second post? It wouldn`t explain why I had two Add/Remove
> Programs, though.
>
> Thanks again
> Kate
>

In answer to my own query, having checked the Properties of the
multiple files (.dlls for the most part) and noted the versions, the
last four numbers _are_ different.

Kate