Programs not showing up in Add/Remove Programs

It is fairly common for an installer to not show the removal option in the Add/Remove applet in XP.

The solution for an individual app may be to go in to the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall and look for the application name, such as IBM Rapid Restore Ultra

and a value listed as "SystemComponent"=dword:00000000

If the value is 1, it is hidden, but if it is 0, it is shown in the applet.

Most Windows installers are found in the hidden Windows/Installer folder. To figure out which MSI is for which application, permitting uninstall or repair of installation, pass cursor over file and look at tool tip, or select file and look in status bar.

And:

Uninstall "Hidden" Windows Components Apparently, Microsoft didn't want you to be able to remove some apps. You can editing the SYSOC.INF file, which is located in the C:\WINDOWS [or your Windows XP directory]\INF folder. Open it with Notepad or another editor.

Under the [Components] heading, you'll see a whole bunch of parameters for various Windows applets. Some of them contain the word "hide." Those particular programs, which include Windows Messenger (msmsgs), Terminal Server, Pinball, and others, are installed on your XP system, but their entries are hidden from and Add/Remove dialog.

To remove Windows Messenger, edit hide out of the line that reads

msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7

so that it looks like this:

msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,7

Save the file, close it, and open the Add/Remove Program applet. Click on Windows Components button and you'll see Windows Messenger listed. Uncheck it and click Next to purge that silly program from your system.

Feel free to edit hide everywhere it appears in the SYSOC.INF file to reveal other removable Windows XP components.

-- KevinJarnot - 09 Dec 2004