Puzzle on the Add or Remove Programs Page

[losl(removethis)]

I want to manually remove a program item which is already uninstalled
from the Currently installed programs list in the Add or Remove Programs
page of my WinXP Pro SP2itially try to remove it. I opened the registry,
deleted the appropiated entry, follow strictly the instruction from MS
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314481). The program item still
appeared in the Add/Remove Programs page without the change/remove
button. How come this happened? I rebooted my PC still no luck. I
rechecked the registry the item i want to remove was NOT here. How could
i remove this nonexist item? I did a test. I deleted the WHOLE branch of
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall]
from my registry. I expected the Add or Remove Programs page should be
empty. But NOT all the installed program items were still displayed as
before the only changes were 1)the no further action on doubleclick;
2)no change/remove button; 3)the icons.

Will please someone shade light on me for solving this puzzle thank you!!

 

[Guest]

Stephen, playing with registry is not a safe. Have you backed up your
registry before attempting this ?
If yes, restore it back or perform a system restore from safe mode.

Then try registry managing utility like this one to see if it helps:

http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm

 

[David Candy]

There are other keys. Some things exist in two places.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Products
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products

And the above get built here
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Management\ARPCache

 

[Al Romanosky]

Tweak (part of XP power toys) provides capability to remove listing of
programs previously removed.

 

[losl(removethis)]

Stephen, playing with registry is not a safe. Have you backed up your
registry before attempting this ?
If yes, restore it back or perform a system restore from safe mode.

Then try registry managing utility like this one to see if it helps:

http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm

Thank you for your advice!
I will try this freeware later

 

[losl(removethis)]

Tweak (part of XP power toys) provides capability to remove listing of
programs previously removed.

I tried the TweakUI but could find this function on the lefthand side
pulldown menu. Will you please give me the poiter, thank you!!

 

[David Candy]

Tweakui ver 1.00 (from 95 power toys) is the one that edits Add/Remove.

Not that this will help you as it does what you have done manually. I already told you the answer.