Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.registry,microsoft.public.windowsnt.registry,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment (More info?)

Just to test, I went through the Uninstall key in the registry
(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall),
and for every subkey, if there was an entry named "DisplayIcon", I renamed
it to XDisplayIcon (so that I could find it and restore it if desired). I
then rebooted my system. It still displays the huge white space and junk
graphics at several places between items.

"Mickey Ferguson" <MFerguson@peinc.com> wrote in message
newsrMoVv6EFHA.3368@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> I'm running XP Pro SP2. When I start up the Add/Remove Programs applet,
it
> shows a number of programs, then has a huge amount of empty space between
> two entries (we're talking dozens of page down keystrokes to find the next
> one), then some more entries, and another huge gap. I have no idea how to
> clean up this problem. I'm reasonably familiar with the Uninstall
registry
> key, and I don't see anything that looks out of the ordinary. I've also
run
> RegClean.exe, though that really only deals with missing/removed COM
> components.
>
> Short of blowing my system away and starting from scratch (really not much
> of an option, since I've got so many programs installed), what can I do to
> fix this problem and clean my system? Is there something to look at in
the
> registry to find and fix this? I'm perfectly comfortable with going into
> the registry and making changes if needed.

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.registry,microsoft.public.windowsnt.registry,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment (More info?)

For the benefit of others, I found my solution by using x-setup-pro. It can
be found at http://www.x-setup.net/home.asp?lang=EN, and is freeware for the
home user (which is where I was encountering my problem). Incidentally, I
had two bad entries. One was for Microsoft Encarta 2000, and the other was
for a Microsoft Encarta utility. Not too surprising there... Encarta was a
pretty poor program.

I lost track of who wrote the following text, but it explains how to figure
out where the problem lies.

"First I went to the registry but there is a lot of stuff there I don't
understand, so I left it alone. Then I remembered X-Setup
(http://www.x-setup.net/) - this is the best program ever made for Windows.
It lets you tweak all kinds of things - including the Add/Remove programs
list.

"So, open Add/Remove Programs, and open X-Setup. My version may be old and I
honestly don't know if I have a trial, freeware, shareware or hacked version
(but its probably worth buying), so you might have to adjust the
instructions to fit yours. X-Setup uses a folder/tree structure, so dig down
All X-Setup Pro Plug-ins->System->Software Installation->Add or Remove
Programs List Editor. On the right-hand side it will give you a list in
alphabetical order of what should be in your Add/Remove programs (so make
sure you sort that by Name).

"Now in Add/Remove programs find what items are before and after the strange
black/striped/graphical area. Then find those same two items in X-Setup. Is
there something listed between them?? In my case there was - the Electronic
Arts EACom Updater.

"If you get the same, or something else you don't need then you can
uninstall it manually: Select the item, then click "Edit CMD.." Don't
actually edit the command, just copy it (Ctrl-C). Then open a command window
(Start->Run->cmd.exe) and paste (usually just right-click with the mouse)
the command. Hit enter and it should uninstall whatever was causing the
problem."

"Mickey Ferguson" <MFerguson@peinc.com> wrote in message
news:esA$%23d7EFHA.2180@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Just to test, I went through the Uninstall key in the registry
> (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall),
> and for every subkey, if there was an entry named "DisplayIcon", I renamed
> it to XDisplayIcon (so that I could find it and restore it if desired). I
> then rebooted my system. It still displays the huge white space and junk
> graphics at several places between items.
>
> "Mickey Ferguson" <MFerguson@peinc.com> wrote in message
> newsrMoVv6EFHA.3368@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> > I'm running XP Pro SP2. When I start up the Add/Remove Programs applet,
> it
> > shows a number of programs, then has a huge amount of empty space
between
> > two entries (we're talking dozens of page down keystrokes to find the
next
> > one), then some more entries, and another huge gap. I have no idea how
to
> > clean up this problem. I'm reasonably familiar with the Uninstall
> registry
> > key, and I don't see anything that looks out of the ordinary. I've also
> run
> > RegClean.exe, though that really only deals with missing/removed COM
> > components.
> >
> > Short of blowing my system away and starting from scratch (really not
much
> > of an option, since I've got so many programs installed), what can I do
to
> > fix this problem and clean my system? Is there something to look at in
> the
> > registry to find and fix this? I'm perfectly comfortable with going
into
> > the registry and making changes if needed.
>
>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.registry,microsoft.public.windowsnt.registry,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment (More info?)

Many thanks to the OP for the link to X-Setup
It worked for me and brought an end to a very long frustrating period
of reading posts and searching for a solution to this problem.
And the best thing of all it is FREEWARE
I am finally clear of the space between entries in Add/Remove
my offending pice of software was a m3u editor which I will try to
reinstall or get an update for.
Thanks once more

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 21:45:54 -0800, "Mickey Ferguson"
<MFerguson@peinc.com> wrote:

>For the benefit of others, I found my solution by using x-setup-pro. It can
>be found at http://www.x-setup.net/home.asp?lang=EN, and is freeware for the
>home user (which is where I was encountering my problem). Incidentally, I
>had two bad entries. One was for Microsoft Encarta 2000, and the other was
>for a Microsoft Encarta utility. Not too surprising there... Encarta was a
>pretty poor program.
>
>I lost track of who wrote the following text, but it explains how to figure
>out where the problem lies.
>
>"First I went to the registry but there is a lot of stuff there I don't
>understand, so I left it alone. Then I remembered X-Setup
>(http://www.x-setup.net/) - this is the best program ever made for Windows.
>It lets you tweak all kinds of things - including the Add/Remove programs
>list.
>
>"So, open Add/Remove Programs, and open X-Setup. My version may be old and I
>honestly don't know if I have a trial, freeware, shareware or hacked version
>(but its probably worth buying), so you might have to adjust the
>instructions to fit yours. X-Setup uses a folder/tree structure, so dig down
>All X-Setup Pro Plug-ins->System->Software Installation->Add or Remove
>Programs List Editor. On the right-hand side it will give you a list in
>alphabetical order of what should be in your Add/Remove programs (so make
>sure you sort that by Name).
>
>"Now in Add/Remove programs find what items are before and after the strange
>black/striped/graphical area. Then find those same two items in X-Setup. Is
>there something listed between them?? In my case there was - the Electronic
>Arts EACom Updater.
>
>"If you get the same, or something else you don't need then you can
>uninstall it manually: Select the item, then click "Edit CMD.." Don't
>actually edit the command, just copy it (Ctrl-C). Then open a command window
>(Start->Run->cmd.exe) and paste (usually just right-click with the mouse)
>the command. Hit enter and it should uninstall whatever was causing the
>problem."
>
>"Mickey Ferguson" <MFerguson@peinc.com> wrote in message
>news:esA$%23d7EFHA.2180@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>> Just to test, I went through the Uninstall key in the registry
>> (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall),
>> and for every subkey, if there was an entry named "DisplayIcon", I renamed
>> it to XDisplayIcon (so that I could find it and restore it if desired). I
>> then rebooted my system. It still displays the huge white space and junk
>> graphics at several places between items.
>>
>> "Mickey Ferguson" <MFerguson@peinc.com> wrote in message
>> newsrMoVv6EFHA.3368@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>> > I'm running XP Pro SP2. When I start up the Add/Remove Programs applet,
>> it
>> > shows a number of programs, then has a huge amount of empty space
>between
>> > two entries (we're talking dozens of page down keystrokes to find the
>next
>> > one), then some more entries, and another huge gap. I have no idea how
>to
>> > clean up this problem. I'm reasonably familiar with the Uninstall
>> registry
>> > key, and I don't see anything that looks out of the ordinary. I've also
>> run
>> > RegClean.exe, though that really only deals with missing/removed COM
>> > components.
>> >
>> > Short of blowing my system away and starting from scratch (really not
>much
>> > of an option, since I've got so many programs installed), what can I do
>to
>> > fix this problem and clean my system? Is there something to look at in
>> the
>> > registry to find and fix this? I'm perfectly comfortable with going
>into
>> > the registry and making changes if needed.
>>
>>
>

Hello Mickey
Thank You so much for your help, I really appreicate it. It's great to have people like you in the Computer Community!

I don't know if you're still looking for a solution.

The problem, believe it or not, is simply that the entry in the Registry for the AutoCAD uninstaller specifies its icon incorrectly. There's a simple fix.

Using regedit or some other registry editor, search the Data fields for the string aclt.exe . (You do not need to search the Key or Value fields, just Data).

Step through (<F3> in regedit) the entries in which aclt.exe appears watching for one where aclt.exe is followed by a comma and -1 .

When you find such an entry, it should be the data field for a DisplayIcon key. The aclt.exe will be preceded by the full path to that file in your installation, so it will look something like "Crogram FilesAutoCAD 2002aclt.exe,-1".

Edit the data string, changing the -1 to 1.

That's it! I've never found more than one of these entries in a registry at one time, but I won't swear that couldn't happen, so you might want to continue searching to make sure.

Thanks folks, Autocad was the problem here also...Although as a note, I have full version AutoCad, not AutoCad Lite. Consequently my search for the string aclt.exe turned up zilch. I searched acad.exe and found the bugger, made the correction and all is as it should be.
sfg

Another possible problem:

I went through all of the registry edits as well as the above mentioned software installation and troubleshooting, but it turned out to be a hardware problem that caused the Add or Remove Program window not to populate.

I had a corrupted hard drive (non-primary, just a storage drive); there were no error alerts, the drive simply couldn't be accessed. I was moments away from formatting my OS drive when I realized that corrupted drive had failed and while the icon was there without error alerts, the drive was literally inaccessible. My best guess is that Windows XP tried to index the drive in order to see what (if any) apps were installed on the drive and this is what caused the freeze, or null return on anything in the Add or Remove Programs window.

Ultimately, I just had to reformat the bad drive and I was back in action. That's 1 day of my life I don't have to spend re-installing a clean OS now!!!

Just something else to keep your eyes out for.