Add or Remove Programs - No Change or Remove Buttons

[Rob7]

My Add/Remove Programs window 'suddenly'
has many more entries than it used to - many are smaller program modules
that
make up more comprehensive applications (one example is Norton AV, which
shows up as multiple small programs).

Most (over 95% of the entries) have only the default icon associated with
the entry, only a few have the normal icon one would expect for the program.

When I click on most (again over 95%) of the entries, there is no remove or
change button at all. A few of the MS updates have a remove button but
that's about it.

This is not the 'white space' or 'hidden programs' issue - it may be
registry damage, but I don't know what caused it - I don't go to Add/Remove
that often, so no idea when this changed. Major software updates over the
past months have been IE7, multiple Symantec updates.

I've run several different malware and AV programs, no hits.

My registry key at HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Uninstall
has only a single entry for PC Doctor 5, that was installed very recently -
all the other subkeys are gone.

If anyone can help with a couple of things, it would be greatly appreciated
- one is: "where is Add/Remove getting the limited information that it's
displaying"? It appears that it might be at
HKLM\Software\Classes\Installer\Products, as the subkeys there seem to match
the fragmented entries I see in ARP.

Second is any thoughts on repair or recovery? I've tried system restore,
but none of my backups go back far enough. Thanks in advance.

 

[Elmo]

My Add/Remove Programs window 'suddenly'
has many more entries than it used to - many are smaller program modules
that
make up more comprehensive applications (one example is Norton AV, which
shows up as multiple small programs).

Most (over 95% of the entries) have only the default icon associated with
the entry, only a few have the normal icon one would expect for the program.

When I click on most (again over 95%) of the entries, there is no remove or
change button at all. A few of the MS updates have a remove button but
that's about it.

This is not the 'white space' or 'hidden programs' issue - it may be
registry damage, but I don't know what caused it - I don't go to Add/Remove
that often, so no idea when this changed. Major software updates over the
past months have been IE7, multiple Symantec updates.

I've run several different malware and AV programs, no hits.

My registry key at HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Uninstall
has only a single entry for PC Doctor 5, that was installed very recently -
all the other subkeys are gone.

If anyone can help with a couple of things, it would be greatly appreciated
- one is: "where is Add/Remove getting the limited information that it's
displaying"? It appears that it might be at
HKLM\Software\Classes\Installer\Products, as the subkeys there seem to match
the fragmented entries I see in ARP.

Second is any thoughts on repair or recovery? I've tried system restore,
but none of my backups go back far enough. Thanks in advance.

Add/Remove buttons
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/arp.htm

 

[Rob7]

Thanks very much - a great site. Problem is that something has erased
nearly all of the entries in the uninstall key - so there's nothing to edit
and fix that way.

I've had some success by trying to reinstall selected programs, and picking
'repair' as the installer option - that's starting to clean it up, but I
really wish I could figure out what erased the registry entries in the first
place.

Thanks for the assist!

 

[Rob7]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've not deleted the log files from installs -
rather it seems clear that something I installed has erased the registry
entries in the Uninstall key.

Nothing on disk scan either. I am able to reinstall programs, and by
selecting the repair option in the installer, I've made some progress in
cleaning up the mess, but a bit frustrating to have to do that for all
programs. I'm still puzzled about what did the erase in the first place...
thanks for the assist.

 

[Guest]

Rob, I am having the same problem. Any chance that you did any windows
updates before this happens. I am working on 3 pcs and the same happen after
I did 56 updates.