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Computer Q&A Board / Windows / RePopulate Add/Remove Programs
Posted by: wngardner, October 22nd, 2006, 4:26pm
Is there a utility that will repopulate my Windows uninstall file that got corrupted? Now only about a quarter of my programs are listed in the Add/Remove Windows utility.
Posted by: Cassandra, October 22nd, 2006, 6:13pm; Reply: 1
I've never heard a story exactly like that, but it sounds like the portion of the registry where the Uninstall strings are stored got damaged. If you have a recent backup copy of your registry, that should fix it. If you had just a backup of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall that would be even better, but I doubt that many people have one.
In addition to the usual warnings, there's one more thing you should know about restoring the registry from a backup: Many programs store bits of history, configuration parameters, etc., in the registry, and restoring an old one can create a lot of minor nuisances.
Good luck.
C.
Posted by: Ray, October 23rd, 2006, 11:53am; Reply: 2
No, there is not a utility to do that. I don't think it is even possible.
As Cassandra said, you could restore a registry backup (restoring a Restore Point also would work). That is a good reason why you should keep regular backups of the registry (our WinRescue program at
http://superwin.com/rescuexp.htm can do that).
If you can't do that, you could reinstall each of the programs to the same place that they already are (that will add their entry in the Add/Remove list).
Posted by: Belinda, November 5th, 2006, 8:25pm; Reply: 3
I have the same problem on my desktop. I found that if you scroll all the way to the bottom of the (blank) list, the rest of your items are there. I don't know why there is so much blank space between. I was glad when I found the rest of my items there at the bottom. Maybe your's is the same. Good Luck.
Posted by: Ray, November 6th, 2006, 7:26pm; Reply: 4
You might want to check out the Add/Remove Editor of RegVac or our freeware program, Add/Remove Pro. Maybe it will show you something about those blank entries.
Or you can go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall key in the registry and see what those blank items are.
The DisplayName value is what is shown in Add/Remove Programs. My guess is that DisplayName is a space or something like that which is showing as a blank entry.
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