Add or Remove programs - programs missing

[Guest]

In XP Home Add or Remove programs, I have about the first one third of the
programs listed, and the last one third, but the middle third is missing and
instead there's a very long blank, 58 whole screens long, which is selectable
(goes grey when clicked). I cured the problem by restoring once and then
again to an earlier restore point, but the problem reappeared.

 

[Guest]

So this isn't new - in
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...-us-ms-winxp&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=en-us&m=1&p=1
it's to do with Autocad, which I do have, so go to Kelly's Korner, which says:

Add or Remove - White Space

AutoCad Fix
Autodesk Land Desktop 3 Fix

This is generally due to the DisplayIcon having a negative number. From here
you can either remove the negative number or remove the last application
listed: Start/Run/Regedit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{}

Can someone give ma an idiots guide to what this is supposed to mean?

Thanks

 

[NewScience]

1. Open Regedit
2. Open
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Uninstall key
(Each key has a '+' next to the name, cascading downward. Keep expanding
until you get to Uninstall)
3. Left-click on the key name Uninstall
4. Press F3
5. Enter AutoCad (or whatever the name is)
6. Make sure all checkboxes are checked on.
7. Click OK

When the search find the AutoCad entry, in the right panel you should see:

DefaultIcon REG_SZ [Some Pathname],[Some number]

It may also say:

DefaultIcon REG_EXPAND_SZ [Some Pathname],[Some number]

Make sure the [Some number] is not a negative number:

DefaultIcon REG_SZ [Some Pathname],-1

If it is, change to a 0.

KEEP regedit open, and try Add/Remove Programs again. If you still have the
blank problem, there is another entry bad and you need to search again.
Just press F3 and enter another search (in case the other AutoCad is bad as
well). Change if wrong.

The close REGEDIT.

If that doesn't solve the problem, click on Uninstall key name again, F3 and
search for the ', -' (without the quotes) and ',-' (without the quotes). And
check each DisplayIcon value. Do this until you are no longer under the
Uninstall keyname branch.

 

[Guest]

NewScience, that's magic, thanks very much for making it so clear. So this is
a fault in Autocad? so why didn't they issue a bugfix, or is it something
that creeps in for some other reason, because it wasn't there on my computer
till now?