Add/Remove programs almost empty..

[Guest]

Hi (and Help!),

Suddenly when I click Controlpanel->Add/remove programs only 25% of the
programs that were previously listed here are now listed. I have not
uninstalled the missing programs of course, they have just gone missing from
this list.

I have no idea as to why this is the case. Does anyone have any ideas? Is it
possible to recreate the list somehow?

The only thing I have done that I can think of made this happen was to
delete the config.msi directory from my D: partition (not touching anything
on system partition C and deleting some old keys in the registry pertaining
to previously uninstalled programs I know were no longer present on my system.

Please help.

Thanks!

/P

 

[Guest]

Try using this program to see if they arre listed:

Have you looked in the registry under the certain key?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

To get into the registry, do this:

1) Click START

2) Click RUN

3) Type 'regedit' (without quotes) & press ENTER

4) Now, navigate to the key mentioned above.

Please let me know the outcome

 

[danjr]

Suddenly when I click Controlpanel->Add/remove programs only 25% of the

programs that were previously listed here are now listed. I have not
uninstalled the missing programs of course, they have just gone missing from
this list.

Download a copy of TweakUI and install the utility. There is a tab that
lists the Control Panel icons. Make sure each of them is checked. If you
don't already have TweakUI, it's a great utility anyway. You can get it
from http://download.com/

Alternatively, here are some links to try.

Find those missing Control Panel icons
http://searchwinsystems.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid68_gci1039978,00.html

Icons Missing in Control Panel
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;132885

Replacing Missing Control Panel Icons
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;173132

Hope this helps.

Dan

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi (and Help!),

Suddenly when I click Controlpanel->Add/remove programs only 25% of the
programs that were previously listed here are now listed. I have not
uninstalled the missing programs of course, they have just gone missing from
this list.

I have no idea as to why this is the case. Does anyone have any ideas? Is it
possible to recreate the list somehow?

The only thing I have done that I can think of made this happen was to
delete the config.msi directory from my D: partition (not touching anything
on system partition C and deleting some old keys in the registry pertaining
to previously uninstalled programs I know were no longer present on my system.

Please help.

Thanks!

/P

I have seen this problem before. It was caused by a corrupt
entry in the list of installed programs. I fixed it by searching
the registry for the last program listed, then manually deleting
that entry. Crouchie's suggestion will probably guide you to
the right place.

 

[Guest]

I have written my own add/remove program in VB.NET, but never gave you a link
to it in my last post as its on the Internet (got dot net site) as source
code only. So, you will need to compile it anyway.

I have found these articles on the Internet:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q266668/

http://www.jsifaq.com/subf/tip2700/rh2764.htm

Try the second link first though

 

[Guest]

Try using this program to see if they arre listed:

Do you refer to regedit here or to the program you did not post the link for?

Have you looked in the registry under the certain key?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

To get into the registry, do this:

1) Click START

2) Click RUN

3) Type 'regedit' (without quotes) & press ENTER

4) Now, navigate to the key mentioned above.

Please let me know the outcome

Did this and found that only 4 programs are listed under the uninstall key.
Regretfully I have not backups of the registry so I cannot compare with
previous states of it. But if this is the key where the uninstall entry for
programs like Winzip, Winrar, FlashFXP, Winamp, Eudora, Nero, etc are
supposed to be, then effectively they are missing.

??

/p

 

[Guest]

I have seen this problem before. It was caused by a corrupt
entry in the list of installed programs. I fixed it by searching
the registry for the last program listed, then manually deleting
that entry. Crouchie's suggestion will probably guide you to
the right place.

Hi, how do you mean 'last program listed'? Do you mean in the uninstall key
(but there they are listed alphabetically and not by time of installation) or
is there some master list in the registry of installed programs? Your problem
identification seems plausible, but I don't understand where to look in the
registry.

/p

 

[Guest]

I have written my own add/remove program in VB.NET, but never gave you a link
to it in my last post as its on the Internet (got dot net site) as source
code only. So, you will need to compile it anyway.

I have found these articles on the Internet:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q266668/

http://www.jsifaq.com/subf/tip2700/rh2764.htm

Try the second link first though

I tried second link and did as suggested there. The command window reported
positively that my command was processed or registered successfully but
nothing changed in the add/remove programs list to solve my problem.

Faced witht he amount of registry keys in the MS KB article at the first
link you gave me I daunted and decided the best solution may just be to bite
the sour apple and reinstall the system and all software with it (say goodbye
the that 10 hours of doing other things... ).

But as a last resort before that, would it be of any use (seen as how only 4
entries are present in the uninstall key (previous reply)) to get your source
code and get hold of a freeware compiler, compile it, and see if it can do
anything for me? (I don't know diddly about source code so I would need the
freeware compiler toknow how to do it all and give me an executable)

Thanks!

/p

 

[Guest]

UPDATE:

I noticed a moment ago that the few programs that remain listed in the
Add/remove list all have their 'Change' and 'Remove' buttons greyed out even
when selected. Thus even for programs listed it is not possible to uninstall
them.
Maybe the whole uninstall engine has gone haywire?

The 'change' button may be called 'edit' or something else in English
versions of Win2K (I am using a Swedish version).

/p

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi, how do you mean 'last program listed'? Do you mean in the uninstall key
(but there they are listed alphabetically and not by time of installation) or
is there some master list in the registry of installed programs? Your problem
identification seems plausible, but I don't understand where to look in the
registry.

/p

As I mentioned, it's the uninstall location mentioned by Crouchie:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall.
I simply deleted the key corresponding to the last entry shown in
the Control Panel, and all the other installed program became
visible in the Control Panel when I re-opened add/remove programs.

 

[John John]

Peter,

Before doing the drastic last step of an In-Place Upgrade you might want
to look here: http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win2000/t1037747260

The fellow has posted a good methodology to try to repair the problem
and has posted .reg fixes and .bat files to automate the routine. If
you have difficulty understanding how to creat and use the .reg and .bat
files just post back here and someone will post the file and give you
instructions, it's not hard to create and use these files. If you find
this too daunting at the very least I would try an IE repair or
reinstall before doing an In-Place upgrade. You understand what an
In-Place Upgrade does?

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;292175

What an in-place Windows 2000 upgrade changes and what it does not change
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306952/EN-US/

John

 

[lee]

Faced witht he amount of registry keys in the MS KB article at the first
link you gave me I daunted and decided the best solution may just be to bite
the sour apple and reinstall the system and all software with it (say goodbye
the that 10 hours of doing other things... ).

Why reinstall the entire OS? Just reinstall the programs that are on
your system that show up missing in Add/Remove Control Panel. Also, try
uninstalling a program that has an applet missing from the control
panel, but has it's own uninstaller. Does that work?

 

[Guest]

EPILOGUE:

I tried the things that have been suggested in the thread and in the posted
links, but it did not solve my problems. So, since I had a Ghost image with
fairly up to date installation I decided to revert back to that one. I lost
some time, but the whole thing started to get out of hand as well since
nothing worked.... Now all is well again, and I thank everyone for their
input and help.

Cheers mates!

/p