anon said:
When I click on add or remove programs in the control paned, the screen
opens that says 'please wait while list is populated'.
The hour glass goes away and the list stays blank with the statement
still there.
Have waited for minutes to populate - nothing happens.
This started just today.
Is this caused by one of MS updates???
Here's something I found, posted by Nightowl:
Here are a few things to try; they may not help in your situation but I
think are worth a go before you do a repair install.
1. Open a Command window and at the prompt type the following commands a
line at a time, pressing Enter after each one:
regsvr32 appwiz.cpl
regsvr32 mshtml.dll
2. If you're comfortable editing the Registry, navigate to this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Management\ARPCache
and delete it (be sure to take a backup first!) The ARPCache is where
Add/Remove stores details of the programs that show in the list, but it
doesn't automatically remove those details when you uninstall a program.
Deleting the key will force Windows to rebuild it. If you don't like to
manually edit the Registry, you could copy the lines below into a
Notepad document, save as UpdateARP.reg and then double-click to delete
the key. Copy everything between the dotted lines, including the blank
line at the end (that's important) and be sure to select "All File
Types" in the Save As dialog. You'd need to reboot afterwards, then try
Add/Remove again.
-------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Management\ARPCache]
------------------------
3. Run a system file check. Open a Command window and at the prompt
type: sfc /scannow <enter>.
Also try this MSKB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/266668/EN-US/?#kb1