Add/Remove Program

[Joseph Childs]

I have Windows XP professional on my computer. There is a program name on
my Add/Remove Program list in the Control Panel that I cannot remove. The
program no longer exists on my computer. When I try to remove the program
from the list, I get a message that there is an invalid uninstall control
file and refers to a uninstall.xml file in a named folder on my C drive.
Neither the file or the folder exist. Also, the file name that I'm trying to
remove from the Add/Remove Programs list has no size associated with it as
do all the other valid programs listed. How do I remove this program name
from the list?

 

[Malke]

I have Windows XP professional on my computer. There is a program name on
my Add/Remove Program list in the Control Panel that I cannot remove. The
program no longer exists on my computer. When I try to remove the program
from the list, I get a message that there is an invalid uninstall control
file and refers to a uninstall.xml file in a named folder on my C drive.
Neither the file or the folder exist. Also, the file name that I'm trying to
remove from the Add/Remove Programs list has no size associated with it as
do all the other valid programs listed. How do I remove this program name
from the list?

Start>run>regedit [enter]

HKEY_Local_Machine>Software>Microsoft>Windows>Current Version>Uninstall

Scroll down to the entry for the program you want to remove and delete it.


Malke

 

[Poprivet]

I have Windows XP professional on my computer. There is a program
name on my Add/Remove Program list in the Control Panel that I cannot
remove. The program no longer exists on my computer. When I try to
remove the program from the list, I get a message that there is an
invalid uninstall control file and refers to a uninstall.xml file in
a named folder on my C drive. Neither the file or the folder exist.
Also, the file name that I'm trying to remove from the Add/Remove
Programs list has no size associated with it as do all the other
valid programs listed. How do I remove this program name from the
list?

Here's an MS set of data on that:
Remove invalid entries in Add/Remove Programs

Sometimes when you uninstall a program, corresponding Add/Remove entry may
not be removed. This may be due to incomplete uninstall or poorly designed
uninstaller itself. To manually remove the orphaned entries from Add/Remove
applet, follow these steps:

Start Regedit.exe and locate the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \
Uninstall

Backup the branch to a file.

Locate the corresponding entry from the list and delete it

Close Registry Editor

There are some {GUID} sub-keys under the Uninstall key. Now what?

Under Uninstall you may see some {GUIDs}. Each {GUID} represents a software
product that you've installed. Under the above key, click each {GUID} entry
and verify the DisplayName shown in the right-pane. Once you locate the item
that you want to remove from Add/Remove Programs, backup the entry to a REG
file and then delete the key. The DisplayName string the one that's
displayed in the Add/Remove Programs applet for that application.

Example: PC Inspector File Recovery has the GUID
{0DD140D3-9563-481E-AA75-BA457CBDAEF2}

Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Uninstall \
{0DD140D3-9563-481E-AA75-BA457CBDAEF2}

"DisplayName"="PC Inspector File Recovery"

Still unable to remove an entry?

If the program uses Windows Installer package, try the Windows Installer
Cleanup Utility to remove the installer information for that program, and
also the corresponding Add/Remove programs entry. See Windows Installer
Cleanup Utility.

 

[Unknown]

Besides editing the registry, reinstalling the program and then deleting it
has worked for many people.

 

[occam]

Besides editing the registry, reinstalling the program and then deleting it
has worked for many people.

that should read ..."reinstalling the program and then uninstalling it
immediately" ...

 

[Unknown]

You are correct should have said uninstalling-----------head on crooked.

 

[mkstead]

You can use a program from Microsoft to try and remove it:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/290301