Nifty Little Reg Trick

**This was done on a Windows 2000 Pro OS**

So I was sitting their looking at my add remove programs box trying to unistall "ebates websavings" from a computer. The adware had been removed but for some reason it still stayed in ControlPanel - Add and Remove Programs.

I wanted it out of their so I decided to see if I can mess with it through the registry. I clicked start - run - typed in regedit and clicked ok my registry popped open.

I sat their for a minute thinking where it would be and then it dawned on me google it baby. So I decided to type in "add remove programs in the registry" into a google search. Bam 403,000 results in 0.35 seconds I clicked on the first link to see what it had pulled up and it was exactly what I was looking for. Microsoft Knowledge base. Here is the article so you can see where in the system registry it is located.

Quote:

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How to Manually Remove Programs from the Add/Remove Programs List
View products that this article applies to.
This article was previously published under Q247501
IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry
SUMMARY
This article describes how to manually remove items from the Add/Remove Programs tool if the item is still displayed after you try to remove the item from Add/Remove Programs.
MORE INFORMATION
WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

Programs that are compatible with Windows may have an uninstallation program or feature. The Add/Remove programs tool lists all of the Windows-compatible programs that have an uninstall program or feature. You may need to manually remove the program from the Add/Remove Programs list if you uninstall a program and the registry key that is used to display the program name is not removed correctly:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then press ENTER.
2. Locate and click the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
3. After you click the Uninstall registry key, click Export Registry File on the Registry menu.
4. In the Export Registry File dialog box, click Desktop in the Save in box, type uninstall in the File name box, and then click Save.
5. Each key under Uninstall represents a program that appears in Add/Remove Programs. To determine which program that each key represents, click the key, and then view the following values:

DisplayName - the value data for the DisplayName key is the name that is listed in Add/Remove Programs

-and-

UninstallString - the value data for the UninstallString key is the program that is used to uninstall the program
6. After you identify the registry key that represents the program that is still in Add/Remove Programs, right-click the key, and then click Delete.
7. After you delete the key, click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
8. In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.
9. In Add/Remove Programs, verify that the program for which you deleted the registry key is not listed.
10. If the program list is not correct in Add/Remove Programs, you can double-click the Uninstall.reg file on your desktop to restore the original list of programs in the registry.
11. If the program list is correct in Add/Remove Programs, you can right-click the Uninstall.reg file on your desktop, and then click Delete.

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Here is the link to the Microsoft Article

Well I am happy to announce I was able to easily delete the reg key and delete it from the Add Remove Programs box.

I hope some people find some use out of this. I am not going to post it it "Other Tutorials," but if people feel it is worthy I will ask a Mod.


- MilitantEidolon

put it in the tutorials, it is a helpful hint. and nice for people like me who go on rampages and just delete entire directories of a program and not do the "uninstall"

The only thing about putting it in other tutorials is that, surely the tutorials forums are for original work. I know that what you posted is a tutorial, but I wouldn't have thought it was fair to post it in a tutorial forum considering it then looks as though it is your own tut.

ac

Oh yeah, I actually got around to looking it up, and there is an official written rule that you can't post anything you didn't write yourself (credited or not) in the tuts section. Sooo, you're probably safer here.

Funny though, technically, if I understand our AUP correctly, we can't copy or even link to anything anywhere in the forums (like we'd ever follow that one ;)) due to copyright issues. I think that's a bit on the stiff side. Guess it's a moot point though. Just the fine print no one pays attention to?

Anyway, you know what usually happens at this point? 5-10 of the next posts will be on nothing but the topic of the legitimacy of the post. :) Happens every time. So, let's skip that part this time. I have spoken with everything you need to know. :D

Anyway, that was great info, good to know, could come in handy sometime.

Quote:

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Funny though, technically, if I understand our AUP correctly, we can't copy or even link to anything anywhere in the forums (like we'd ever follow that one ) due to copyright issues. I think that's a bit on the stiff side. Guess it's a moot point though. Just the fine print no one pays attention to?

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as long as you put the link into where you got it from and put it in quotes, it is legal (similar to when you have to write papers for school and you put a quote in there) -- as far as copyright stuff goes, i believe you just have to give credit to the original writer

Ooooooh ok. I must've misread it. That makes much more sense.

MilitantEidolon

Thanks for the tip. Keep the good stuff coming!

:cool:

That has a security related implication as well. If you backup the key for a particular program, and then delete it. No one can uninstall the software. It's a good way to baffle a newbie.

Cheers,
cgkanchi

As a security site there is an equal amount of hacker (whitehat) enthusiasts. Here the reason you need to understand the problem is so that you can beat it. Here are a few other registry tricks I found:

Preventing Regedit from Displaying the Last Key you Accessed When you Started Regedit

Solution to fixing a crashed computer due to a registry problem

This one could be a security threat. Someone could create a script or a virus or something to perfom this function on DL of the virus file. Scary and a good reminder to lock down the registry for all users (besides yourself of course ;) )

Windows NT allows you to automatically logon a user by specifying the following values in the Registry.

How to Restrict Access to the Registry from a Remote Computer

Well these are the other things I found cool so have fun!

- MilitantEidolon

HMMM thats a cool little trick ill have to try it sometime.