Strange and stupid behaviour of appwiz.cpl [Add/Remove Programs]

[rohan]

When I go to Start>Run and type in appwiz.cpl or Start>Settings>Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs, the window pops up and there is a white box in there, which displays 'Please wait while the list is being populated' and it continues to show that for ad infinitum.. nothing happens at all.. the comp doesn't get slow or the window doesn't get the draggy feel.. its perfectly inactive.

I'm using Windows XP MCE 2005 with SP2 and all updates through windows update [except the Update Rollup 2 for MCE, which I can't install because that update requires me to uninstall an update component which i'm not able to because of the problem stated above]

thanks...

[Vishal Gupta]

First check following things:

1. Open regedit and goto:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\

Now make sure that there is no key Uninstall under Policies key. If its there, delete it.

2. Now goto:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

and check whether this key contains any sub-key or not.

[rohan]

i checked for the uninstall sub-key.. didn't find any of it.
as in the second step, the Uninstall key has loads of keys under it, many of which i could recognize as the programs installed on my comp and the various updates.. so i'm guessing this is what windows uses to populate the appwiz.cpl box.. but the problem still persists.

thanks for replying, btw.