jiffener

I wonder if anyone can help me. A strange thing has happened and I think it's big trouble. When I go to the Control Panel and open Add/Remove Programs, there are only 2 programs in the Install/Uninstall window. Earlier today there were a couple dozen in there and now they are missing. What could have happened and how do I fix it?

If anyone can help, PLEASE do.

Thank you,
Jiffener

Geekgirl

Hi Welcome to TSF


You may want to print these instructions.

The list in Add/Remove Programs is held in the Registry (specifically, the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Current Version \ Uninstall key), so it appears this information is missing or lost. The easiest thing to do is restore a backup of your Registry.

In Windows 98 and Me, Windows makes a backup of your Registry each day, and stores the five most recent backups. To restore them requires booting to the command prompt. In Windows 98, restart your PC and hold [Ctrl] as Windows starts to bring up the boot menu. When the Startup Menu appears press [6] to select Safe Mode Command Prompt only. In Windows Me, start from your start-up floppy and select to start your PC without CD-ROM support. When the A:> prompt appears, type c: and press [Return].

When the C:> prompt appears, type cd windows\command and press [Return]. Next, type scanreg /restore and press [Return]. Use the arrow keys to pick an entry from the list based on the last date you recall seeing the Add/Remove Programs list and then press [Return] to select Restore and replace the Registry with an earlier version. When the C:> prompt appears, press your reset button to restart your PC, and hopefully the list will have returned. If it hasn’t, we suggest uninstalling all your programs using their own uninstallers – these should be found in the Start, Programs menu – and then reinstalling them to add their entries back to the Add/Remove Programs list.

Info