Uninstalling Hidden Installations

[alacritous]

Hello everyone,

I'm having a bit of a problem here. I want to uninstall certain programs like the Pinball game (and other games installed), and also the MSN Messenger. These are all installed defaultly on a new installation of Windows XP, but they are hidden (not directly in Add/Remove Programs). Well, you can unhide these programs by going to "C:\WINDOWS\inf\sysoc.inf". The "inf" folder is hidden by default.

In the sysoc.inf file, it appears similar to this: (with a bunch of others)

[Components]
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7

You remove the word "hide" to unhide it, then you can go to Add/Remove Programs, then Add/Remove Windows Components. Well, when I remove the "hide" it doesn't show up in the Add/Remove Windows Components. I have tried making it "...msmsgs.inf,,7..." and "...msmsgs.inf,7...", etc. (Notice the first has two commas, the second one)

I go to Add/Remove Programs, it's not there, but I don't think it's supposed to be there. Then, I click on Add/Remove Windows Components. It has this thing saying "Please wait while we configure the components", then just says "Finished configuring the components" with a Finish button. There is no option to "uncheck" (remove) the MSN Messenger component.

I know there is another way, but I'd like to do it this way since there are others I'd like uninstalled.

Any ideas?
alacritous

[nothingofvalue]

Sounds like you have a problem with your "Add Remove Windows Components" possibly b/c of unhiding the intries? Under "Add remove Windows Components" you should have an Accessories option which then contains the Games and there is also a Messenger Option. Both of these options should already be selected. You should be able to de-select them and press OK to uninstall them. If that is not working for you, perhaps you cna try inserting the Windows XP CD and going to the "Add Remove Windows Components" to see if that will work.

[mendhak]

I believe you can "uninstall" the default games by simply deleting the EXEs and removing the menu entries.

[alacritous]

Sounds like you have a problem with your "Add Remove Windows Components" possibly b/c of unhiding the intries? Under "Add remove Windows Components" you should have an Accessories option which then contains the Games and there is also a Messenger Option. Both of these options should already be selected. You should be able to de-select them and press OK to uninstall them. If that is not working for you, perhaps you cna try inserting the Windows XP CD and going to the "Add Remove Windows Components" to see if that will work.

That's the problem. I can't select anything to uninstall at all. Here are some screenshots with what happens:

I go to the Control Panel, then Add/Remove Programs. Then I click the Add/Remove Windows Components. Well, it pops up a screen (shown below) and does a few things (progress bar).


After a few seconds of it doing things, it pops up what is shown below. I can't select/uncheck anything or click uninstall or whatever. I just installed Windows (I had formatted, just to get a fresh clean start again) and never had this before. It used to pop up the thing where I could do just that, add/remove windows components. Maybe the "sysoc.inf" file is corrupt.

I believe you can "uninstall" the default games by simply deleting the EXEs and removing the menu entries.

Are you kidding? That may work for the games, which I'm not sure of, but definitely not for MSN Messenger or the like. They add tons of entries into the registry and other places, so just deleting the folder wouldn't do much. It would cause more problems than you'd imagine.

Thanks for your help,
alacritous

[dglienna]

Just delete the .exe and delete the menu item pointing to it.

[RobDog888]

The Add/Remove CP Applette should have the Windows Components > then select the Accessories component, uncheck games, and uninstall?

If not then a Windows Repair is in order. If that doesnt fix it then if its that big a deal then do a fresh install.

[alacritous]

The Add/Remove CP Applette should have the Windows Components > then select the Accessories component, uncheck games, and uninstall?

That is the whole problem, it doesn't show up. It only shows those two scenarios like I've showed in the pictures. I can't uncheck/check anything.

If not then a Windows Repair is in order. If that doesnt fix it then if its that big a deal then do a fresh install.

That's the thing... I just did a fresh install, which annoys me :/. I'll try the Windows Repair.

[mendhak]

Are you kidding? That may work for the games, which I'm not sure of, but definitely not for MSN Messenger or the like. They add tons of entries into the registry and other places, so just deleting the folder wouldn't do much. It would cause more problems than you'd imagine.

No, I'm not kidding... I'm talking about the games. Not MSN Messenger.