Add/Remove Program

[Guest]

Ok on my add/remove program list there are a bunch of programs that say
Windows Xp Hotfix. What are these and can i uninstall them?

Thanks
John

 

[Tom]

Ok on my add/remove program list there are a bunch of programs that say
Windows Xp Hotfix. What are these and can i uninstall them?

Thanks
John

Those are simply the Hotfixes that were downloaded and installed to your
system from Windows Updates. Whether they are critical, or security, or
whatever, depends on how you download them. You probably have WU set to do
this "all" automatically, which many times happens when you are unaware of
it (e.g. away from your PC, while it is on). I would recommend having WU
alert you to them, then you can choose what you wanted, and also read what
they are about.

Go to the Windows folder, and you'll see those hotfix folder with the name
in "blue". You can delete them, as they are only there if you want to
uninstall them. But if you feel you are OK, and are pressed for space,
delete the ones with the same names as the ones in Add/Remove, then they
will disappear from Add/Remove, and obviously, you will no longer be able to
uninstall them.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

John,

These Hotfix Add/Remove entries and the $Uninstall folders are created when
you install a Microsoft Service Pack, a hotfix, or certain security updates.
These folders contain the uninstall information for the update you install.
That means, you will be unable to remove an update in future, if you delete
these folders. You may leave them there unless you need hard drive space.
Each Qxxxxxx represents an update from Microsoft. To know more about an
update, type the URL in your browser:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=xxxxxx

=> Replace the xxxxxx with the actual numbers. Don't use the prefixes Q
or KB

To manually remove the hotfix entries from Add/Remove Programs, try this:

Start Registry Editor and locate the following key:

[HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall]

Backup the key by exporting them to a .REG file.
Look for the hotfix number in the sub-keys
Delete the entire listing for the hotfix.
Close the registry editor.
By doing the above, only the Add/Remove entry is removed; the update will
not be removed.

Additional information
In Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), the user is able to choose whether to
show or hide updates for Windows and other programs in this view. A new Show
updates check box appears above the list, which enables the user to toggle
between showing or hiding installed updates. For more information on this
feature, see section Filtering out updates from the Change or Remove
Programs list in article Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP
Service Pack 2