Strange problem. On my personal laptop with XP Pro, when I go into Add/Remove programs, most of the programs in there no longer have a Remove button. A few of the more recently installed apps do, but the majority don't. I believe this is a fairly recent problem for me, but I can't tell you for sure when I was in there last.
After multiple searches, I found that this isn't a unique problem. Many others seem to have this problem, but I've still not found a way to fix it.
Has anyone on here run into this, and has anyone found a fix?
Thanks!
Justin
If you've already done some research then you know there is a problem with the appwiz.cpl file. Try running SFC or System File Checker. Should this fail there are other issues that are registery related.
See if there is a uninstall option either in the options or tools tabs within the program you are trying remove, or see if there is a uninstall branch in the Start/programs/Adobe(example)/....
You might want to use something like this uninstaller until you get the underlying problem fixed:
https://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=41374
I ran SFC, but I walked away while it was running (too a while), and by the time I came back, it had completed its scan, shut down, and had me back at a command line. Is there a log somewhere, or would it have stayed up only if it had found a problem? I think that was my first time using SFC.
Telsetrepair, I wasn't able to find an uninstaller for the specific programs. I know what you're talking about, but those that I checked didn't have one in Start|Programs.
Stacey, I considered that, but wanted to see if I could get the problem fixed before resorting to that. I consider that more of a side-step to the problem, and might just fdisk before I go that route. My concern is, even if I fdisk, what's to keep it from happening again, since I don't even know what caused it in the first place.
Thanks for all of the input so far!
Justin
Go into the Registry.
Go to HKLM/software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Uninstall/(application name)
There's should be some Dwords on the right side.
If "NoRemove" is set to 1, the remove button will not be available. Set it to 0, and you should be good.
If "NoRemove" does not exist, create it and set the value to 0.
Good tip, but unfortunately in this case, the only ones that show up there are either things that don't need to be removed, or things that actually do show up in Add/Remove WITH the Remove button.
I tried it, but all it showed were the things that already show up in the registry as things I can uninstall, which are the same ones I made mention of in my previous post.
I hate using a work around rather than fixing the real issue too. I've had to do this recently on my laptop F keys because I just could not find the underlying problem.
Sorry I couldn't be more help.
Love the new sig line Stacey. :rofl:
I had the same problem quite recently. Luckily, in my case, it happened on the laptop i use for testing/exploring problems vs. the one laptop i use day-to-day. I also had a disk image from just a couple days before so I had a test environment to try and debug the problem.
In my case
- The problem was consistent and repeatable. It happened each time I uninstalled Yahoo Browser Services (sometimes also call Yahoo Extras)
- The problem didn't occur uninstalling any other Yahoo entry listed in Add/Remove Programs
- I found that sometime during Yahoo Browser Services uninstall, the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall is deleted from the Windows registry. Normally, each installed program has its own Uninstall subkey under it along with its information on how to uninstall it. When the Uninstall key gets deleted all the program uninstall subkeys are deleted as well!
- Programs installed after that point add their Uninstall information to the registry as they normally do. So, new programs appear but all your old program information is gone.
Some after-the-fact options:
- Use System Restore to go back to a Restore point before the data gets deleted. The catch is you can't wait too long to do it as Windows will eventually overwrite the old Restore point with a new one.
- Recover from backups. If you aren't doing them yet... well, here a good reason to start.
- See if you're offered the option to "repair" a a missing program. For each program you want Uninstall info re-entered, try to reinstall it. Some program install setups will offer you the option to repair vs. install vs. remove. If no repair option, just try reinstalling it
I don't know that Yahoo is related to every of these occurences but definitely the case for mine. Also possible Yahoo calls an underlying function which others do as well.. What did you uninstall last before seeing the problem? (Of course, having the answer doesn't get your data back unfortunately)
Check out the instructions at https://alas.matf.bg.ac.yu/~mg94c18/uninstall.txt.cgi
In short, find that program in registry, rearrange characters in ID and run msiexec /x.
Sasa
Welcome
mg94c18 of Serbia!
That's a great article you found...very helpful!
If you get really desperate you can always restore to a previos restore point. If you have not made many changes since before the issue then this would be the quickest way to resolve the problem.