"Add/Remove programs" tool corrupted !

[Gilles]

Hello folks,

everytime I start the "Add/Remove programs" tool in
control panel, it crashes with a Dr Watson Dump.

Does anybody know how I can fix this problem ? Is
it possible to reinstall this component only ?

Gilles

 

[cirrus1]

TweakUI has an option to fix the Add/remove database, but I don't know if it would work in your case. Worth a try though.

A way to uninstall programs when the Add/remove is not working is to go into the registry and find the uninstall options. Under each installed program there will be an uninstall path which can be executed. I know it's sounds rather slow, but it works.

 

[ddiccico]

did you try to repair win2k? boot off of the cd and follow the instructions. i've used it a few times, and it's worked every time.

 

[jaywallen]

Gilles,

There are reported instances of software installations (like IE 5.5) leaving improper data in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx key and leading to hanging of the system when the Add/Remove Programs applet is accessed. The re-installation of the same software often clears up the issue. If it doesn't, manual editing of the key is required. Do you see any entries under this key?

If this were merely a display problem within the applet itself, I'd suggest issuing the command

REGSVR32 APPWIZ.CPL

at a CMD prompt. This can be necessary if an uninstaller removes registry entries needed by the Add/Remove Programs applet. But I don't think this issue would be causing the symptoms you're seeing. Here's an MSKB article on this matter.

I hope you get it sorted out.

Regards,
Jim

 

[Gilles]

Jim,

I finaly found at MS support site something interesting :

"If you install Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 on Windows 2000, the
Add/Remove Programs tool in the Control Panel may hang or become corrupt.
The ability to remove programs or install network published applications
from the Control Panel is lost"

Complete informations can be found at The microsoft support site

For now, I can't verify if this problem was caused by IE55, but indeed,
I installed IE55 few days ago 🙂 MS suggest to reinstall IE55 to fix
the problem.

I'll try tonight to reinstall IE55 and will also try to apply the various
suggestions you made in your reply.

Thanx alot ; more info tomorrow.

Gilles

 

[jaywallen]

I'll keep my fingers crossed!!! Hope to hear it worked.

 

[Gilles]

Jim, you rule !

I lokked at my registry for some corrupted "runOnceEx" entries : none found.

I tried to reinstall MSIE v5.5 : it didn't work.

I tried to reinstall the service pack : nothing

Then...

I tried your magic "REGSVR32 APPWIZ.CPL" command (I used to use this
one for directshow filters, but didn't know about this usage) and it worked !

Now I have access to my add/remove tool again.

Thanx !

BTW, how can I know about such fix ?

Gilles

 

[jaywallen]

That's very good news! I'm glad it worked out for you.

When any Control Panel applet is misbehaving, it probably can't hurt to introduce it to the registry again.

BTW, I haven't seen this issue cause a system to hang. Have you had any problems with this PC's video subsystem? If so, you might want to see if there are newer or WHQL certified drivers available for it. Otherwise, I suppose it's just one of the many variations on a theme that you see in an operating system this complex.

Hope everything continues to look up.

Regards,
Jim

 

[Gilles]

Didn't have any problem with the video, but I noticed that
Add/Remove snap was crashing after having installed many
applications and fixes.

In particular, I had installed that Q260233 hotfix to gain ATA/100
support.

I also had installed SP1, DirectX80a (French) and MSIE55 (in that order).

I had installed the last VIA 4in1 pack for the KT133 Chipset as well.

Probably something went wrong during an install that caused the snap
to be corrupted or removed from the registry ?

Gilles

 

[jaywallen]

<< Probably something went wrong during an install that caused the snap to be corrupted or removed from the registry? >>



I suppose that could be what happend, though I've usually seen this particular problem caused by an UNinstall (especially with commercial uninstall packages) or with the use of one of the aftermarket registry cleaners. In the case of the really aggressive uninstall packages one of the things that happens is that the commercial uninstall software, running in the background during the installation of some other piece of software, records the fact that appwiz.cpl was &quot;registered&quot; by the installation procedure. In other words, the installation procedure was doing what you might call a confirmation registration of the wizard to be sure it was working properly before running the actual software package installation. That's actually a good thing. But it's a bad thing if the third party registry cleaner / uninstaller is too stupid to realize that that appwiz is supposed to be there anyway. When the third party uninstaller is run to remove the aforementioned application, the appwiz.cpl gets removed -- because the uninstaller is too danged aggressive in trying to reverse every &quot;change&quot; that was made by the application's installation procedure. That's why I use a freeware app called InCtrl5 (a PC Mag freebie) to simply record the changes made by an installation. If I decide to uninstall an application, I check the log for registry changes that weren't reversed by the uninstall procedure and correct them MANUALLY -- AFTER I check to be sure those changes aren't still needed by the basic system install or something subsequently installed.

BTW, I was just wondering about something you mentioned -- that this behavior started occurring after &quot;having installed many applications and fixes&quot;. Is it possible that one of the installation routines included an uninstallation routine for a previous version of the software being installed? Another thought I had about this was the matter of rebooting between installations. I make it a point, even on servers, to reboot immediately after ANY installation that writes to the registry. When Windows attempts to incorporate several different pending registry operations into one reboot, you can easily wind up with registry corruption or missing registry entries. Is it possible that you performed some consecutive installations without rebooting during the process of adding the applications and fixes to which you referred? I know we're all tempted to do this because of the fairly lengthy boot processes required by many of these systems. I've also had occasion to get distracted while building a system and simply forget to reboot before installing a subsequent driver or software package. Actually, most of the time we get away with it. It's only once-in-a-while that failing to reboot between installations will really bite us. But it does happen.

Just some thoughts I thought I'd toss out in case they might be useful. In any case, I'm glad the applet is behaving itself again. And I hope it will continue to do so. Nice talking with you!

Regards,
Jim