From: Tommy D on
Running Windows xp pro sp3.

Add or Remove Programs working extremely slow. At first I thought it
wasn't populating and then after 6 - 10 minutes or so, it populated and
appears to be normal. It was working much faster 2 days ago. I've not
added any programs. (I don't recall if Microsoft automatically updated
something). I Googled for the symptom and the results were all over the
map with nothing helpful. Also did the same on Microsoft KB.

I have Kaspersky Internet security. I turned it off and it made no
difference.

All the while the Add Remove is apparently trying to populate, I can my
hard drive is working until the list populates so there is obviously some
activity related to add/remove going on..

I'd appreciate your input as to what might be going on any information or
links that address how to correct it.


TIA

From: SC Tom on

"Tommy D" <tduprZx(a)landmarknZt.invalid> wrote in message
news:g7SIn.73744$0M5.40085(a)newsfe07.iad...
> Running Windows xp pro sp3.
>
> Add or Remove Programs working extremely slow. At first I thought it
> wasn't populating and then after 6 - 10 minutes or so, it populated and
> appears to be normal. It was working much faster 2 days ago. I've not
> added any programs. (I don't recall if Microsoft automatically updated
> something). I Googled for the symptom and the results were all over the
> map with nothing helpful. Also did the same on Microsoft KB.
>
> I have Kaspersky Internet security. I turned it off and it made no
> difference.
>
> All the while the Add Remove is apparently trying to populate, I can my
> hard drive is working until the list populates so there is obviously some
> activity related to add/remove going on..
>
> I'd appreciate your input as to what might be going on any information or
> links that address how to correct it.
>
>
> TIA
>

Do you have 'Show updates' checked? Does it make any difference if it
is/isn't?

Once it's populated, go through and see if there's anything showing that you
don't have installed anymore. For example, if you uninstalled a game or
other program and it still shows up in the list, that will slow the process
down. Depending on the program, you may have to install, then uninstall it
again to get rid of the entry. If it's a Microsoft product, you may be able
to clear it from the list using the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301.

Have you scanned for malware lately? Probably not the cause, but you never
know.
--
SC Tom

From: HeyBub on
Tommy D wrote:
> Running Windows xp pro sp3.
>
> Add or Remove Programs working extremely slow. At first I thought it
> wasn't populating and then after 6 - 10 minutes or so, it populated
> and appears to be normal. It was working much faster 2 days ago.
> I've not added any programs. (I don't recall if Microsoft
> automatically updated something). I Googled for the symptom and the
> results were all over the map with nothing helpful. Also did the
> same on Microsoft KB.
>
> I have Kaspersky Internet security. I turned it off and it made no
> difference.
>
> All the while the Add Remove is apparently trying to populate, I can
> my hard drive is working until the list populates so there is
> obviously some activity related to add/remove going on..
>
> I'd appreciate your input as to what might be going on any
> information or links that address how to correct it.
>

Yeah, who knows. A/R has always been slow.

You might try a freeware program, RevoUninstaller, that's much faster and
does a better job of removing stuff.


From: Twayne on
In news:IYSIn.73750$0M5.28006(a)newsfe07.iad,
SC Tom <sc(a)tom.net> typed:
> "Tommy D" <tduprZx(a)landmarknZt.invalid> wrote in message
> news:g7SIn.73744$0M5.40085(a)newsfe07.iad...
>> Running Windows xp pro sp3.
>>
>> Add or Remove Programs working extremely slow. At first I
>> thought it wasn't populating and then after 6 - 10 minutes
>> or so, it populated and appears to be normal. It was
>> working much faster 2 days ago. I've not added any
>> programs. (I don't recall if Microsoft automatically
>> updated something). I Googled for the symptom and the
>> results were all over the map with nothing helpful. Also
>> did the same on Microsoft KB. I have Kaspersky Internet security. I
>> turned it off and it
>> made no difference.
>>
>> All the while the Add Remove is apparently trying to
>> populate, I can my hard drive is working until the list
>> populates so there is obviously some activity related to
>> add/remove going on.. I'd appreciate your input as to what might be going
>> on any
>> information or links that address how to correct it.
>>
>>
>> TIA
>>
>
> Do you have 'Show updates' checked? Does it make any
> difference if it is/isn't?
>
> Once it's populated, go through and see if there's anything
> showing that you don't have installed anymore. For example,
> if you uninstalled a game or other program and it still
> shows up in the list, that will slow the process down.
> Depending on the program, you may have to install, then
> uninstall it again to get rid of the entry. If it's a
> Microsoft product, you may be able to clear it from the
> list using the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301.
> Have you scanned for malware lately? Probably not the
> cause, but you never know.

This might help:
Sometimes when you uninstall a program, the corresponding Add/Remove entry
is not removed. This may be due to incomplete uninstallation or the poorly
designed uninstaller itself. To remove the invalid/orphaned entries from the
Add/Remove applet manually [Windows 2000/XP]

1. Start Registry Editor (Regedit.exe)
2. Locate the following key in the registry:
3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
4. Make sure you backup the keys by exporting them to a .reg file.
5. Look for the name of the program with the orphaned entry.
6. Delete the entire listing for the software with the orphaned entry.
7. Close the registry editor.
8. Restart your computer.

Orphaned entries are those whose uninstallers are not available [but the
registry entry might point to the actual uninstaller file]. You may also see
errors like "missing install.log or uninstall.log" while trying to uninstall
from Add/Remove Programs. The install.log/uninstall.log contains the
uninstallation information about a program. When you remove a program from
Add/Remove Programs, the log files come into play and remove the
corresponding software entries from the registry and the files in the hard
disk.

If the LOG files are missing, you may need to reinstall the application
again (in the same path) and then try a clean uninstall again. In some
cases, the application might be removed, but the entries may still exist in
the Add/Remove Programs list. Orphaned entries are usually a result of a
system restore rollback operation. Use the above method to remove the
Uninstall entries.



or this:
Remove invalid entries in Add/Remove Programs

Sometimes when you uninstall a program, corresponding Add/Remove entry may
not be removed. This may be due to incomplete uninstall or poorly designed
uninstaller itself. To manually remove the orphaned entries from Add/Remove
applet, follow these steps:

� Start Regedit.exe and locate the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \
Uninstall

� Backup the branch to a file.

� Locate the corresponding entry from the list and delete it

� Close Registry Editor

There are some {GUID} sub-keys under the Uninstall key. Now what?

Under Uninstall you may see some {GUIDs}. Each {GUID} represents a software
product that you've installed. Under the above key, click each {GUID} entry
and verify the DisplayName shown in the right-pane. Once you locate the item
that you want to remove from Add/Remove Programs, backup the entry to a REG
file and then delete the key. The DisplayName string the one that's
displayed in the Add/Remove Programs applet for that application.

Example: PC Inspector File Recovery has the GUID
{0DD140D3-9563-481E-AA75-BA457CBDAEF2}

Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Uninstall \
{0DD140D3-9563-481E-AA75-BA457CBDAEF2}

"DisplayName"="PC Inspector File Recovery"

Still unable to remove an entry?

If the program uses Windows Installer package, try the Windows Installer
Cleanup Utility to remove the installer information for that program, and
also the corresponding Add/Remove programs entry. See Windows Installer
Cleanup Utility.



And finally, here's an excellent application Ive found to be very useful
Super Win Software Freeware

Add/Remove Pro v. 2.11 - displays
If there are any "bad" entries, it'll tag them for you.

HTH,

Twayne`


From: Tommy D on

>
> Once it's populated, go through and see if there's anything showing
> that you don't have installed anymore. For example, if you uninstalled
> a game or other program and it still shows up in the list, that will
> slow the process down. Depending on the program, you may have to
> install, then uninstall it again to get rid of the entry.

Found what must have been causing the problem: several bad files on my
hard drive on which one particular program was located.

I noticed that one of my quickstart Icons at the bottom of my desktop was
the generic Windows page, normally it was a recognizable avatar. I then
went to the program folder on my hard drive and clicked on it to open it
and Windows did not like that, saying there was an error. I then started
Add Remove and waited until it populated, went to that program and tried
to do an uninstall, Add remove said either the program is on a different
drive or already has been removed do you want to remove this entry from
Add Remove, and I said yes.

Then did a scandisk for this hard drive, and Windows found several errors
which were fixed automatically.

Went to the program folder and deleted it uneventfully.

Did Add or Remove and it worked fine.


Thanks again for your suggestions and help.