removing uninstall info & files

[aurgathor]

Howdy,

I just did a clean install of W2K on a friend's computer
that was completely unusable because of the copious
amount of crap (spyware) on it before. I haven't
installed anything but the OS, SP4 and various patches
from windowsupdate, but Add/Remove has already
about 2 pages worth of info in it.

How do I remove those entries and any files W2K
may have saved for uninstall without actually uninstalling
anything? Obviously, I'm not planning on uninstalling
anything I have installed so far.

TIA

 

[Dave Patrick]

You'll have to tell us the contents of the Add/Remove window. If you meant
the hotfix and or service pack uninstall routines
%windir%\$NtServicePackUnistall$
%windir%\$NtUninstall<xxxxxxxx>$

These are the uninstall routines for various service pack and or hotfixes.
If you don't expect to ever require to back down from them then yes you can
delete them.

Then you can delete the key for them from;
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Howdy,
|
| I just did a clean install of W2K on a friend's computer
| that was completely unusable because of the copious
| amount of crap (spyware) on it before. I haven't
| installed anything but the OS, SP4 and various patches
| from windowsupdate, but Add/Remove has already
| about 2 pages worth of info in it.
|
| How do I remove those entries and any files W2K
| may have saved for uninstall without actually uninstalling
| anything? Obviously, I'm not planning on uninstalling
| anything I have installed so far.
|
| TIA
|
|

 

[aurgathor]

Thanks. I see no reason whatsoever to ever
uninstall those hotfixes, but if I *really* want
to change something, I 'ghosted' that
partition, and that can provide a backdoor.

 

[Rob Stow]

Thanks. I see no reason whatsoever to ever
uninstall those hotfixes, but if I *really* want
to change something, I 'ghosted' that
partition, and that can provide a backdoor.

It is just as easy to backup the uninstall folders onto a CD.
If you later realize you need to do an uninstall, you can either
copy the folder from the CD back onto the hard drive, or you can
change the relevant reg key to point to the folder on the CD.

For example,
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Updates\Windows 2000\SP5\
KB820888\UninstallCommand
will normally have a value of
C:\WINNT\$NtUninstallKB820888$\spuninst\spuninst.exe
which you could change to
X:\$NtUninstallKB820888$\spuninst\spuninst.exe
where X is the drive letter for your CD.

You'll have to tell us the contents of the Add/Remove window. If you meant
the hotfix and or service pack uninstall routines
%windir%\$NtServicePackUnistall$
%windir%\$NtUninstall<xxxxxxxx>$

These are the uninstall routines for various service pack and or hotfixes.
If you don't expect to ever require to back down from them then yes you
can

delete them.

Then you can delete the key for them from;
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Howdy,
|
| I just did a clean install of W2K on a friend's computer
| that was completely unusable because of the copious
| amount of crap (spyware) on it before. I haven't
| installed anything but the OS, SP4 and various patches
| from windowsupdate, but Add/Remove has already
| about 2 pages worth of info in it.
|
| How do I remove those entries and any files W2K
| may have saved for uninstall without actually uninstalling
| anything? Obviously, I'm not planning on uninstalling
| anything I have installed so far.
|
| TIA
|
|

 

[aurgathor]

If you later realize you need to do an uninstall, you can either
copy the folder from the CD back onto the hard drive, or you can
change the relevant reg key to point to the folder on the CD.
you can see it.

With W2K, I don't think I ever had to uninstall a fix
because of subsequent problems. With 98/98SE,
there were more than one "fixes" that broke my
systems (usually shutdown related , but that never
happened with W2K. (knocking on the wood)