Windows XP forum: Add/remove doesn't migrate

this was suppose to have been a re-install, but somewhere along the way, it got twisted. I didn't want to try and reinstall everything again because he needs his laptop. Some of his sermons and docs may still be on here. So I didn't want to just end delete them. So, I've been trying to do the least amount of damage possible.

As for preventive measures, he had Norton 360 on it, but who knows when that expired or was updated. Right now, I can't even get Malwarebytes to run, so there's a lot of issues here that needed to be resolved first. I think I got all of them, won't know until I can fix that side of things for sure. So, any help would be useful.

Add/Remove reads a list of entries in the registry and if some pest or "registry cleaner" deleted that list, what you wrote can happen and has been seen.

There has never been a fixit program or tool made in over a decade to re-populate this list.

That's no bug. But it's rare to discuss how Windows works. Hope this saves you some pain.

Now if the Control Panel was blank, there was a fix for that.


I have yet to find a legal XP CD that is available online. And to make matters more fun, there must be a dozen versions of said CD. Use the wrong CD with SFC and you can end up with a non-booting OS.

Which brings up an ugly issue. If folk don't keep there OS or restore CDs they either didn't know how important it was or accept the consequences. Those that didn't know seem to be the most upset about this.
Bob

Often are made by the owner. But as you can imagine, more than half the owners don't make them. And of those that make them they tell you they lost them. This includes those machines that came with the CDs.

-> I was remiss in offering a workaround for uninstalling apps. There are a few ways.

1. Install the app again. Many apps will offer to re-install and cleanup.
2. Go get REVO UNINSTALLER. Often can uninstall things you can't otherwise.

My experience with MSFT's fixit is that it's good when it works but it's rare to see it fix the issue today with all the malware that's out there.

MSFT is a little distracted with Windows 8 and apparently is not putting much effort into OS repair tools. I know folk (Redmondites?) may disagree with me on that but MSFT has had more than enough time to create a "repair the OS and leave the user files intact" by now.
Bob