SP2 Add/Remove Programs Prob

The apps on either side of the gap are ones that are supposed to be there, and appear normal.

Example of failure (in my case there are about 70 other keys besides the ones exampled here):

HKLM...Uninstall\AppKey4 DisplayName=Apple
HKLM...Uninstall\AppKey5 DisplayName=Fred
HKLM...Uninstall\AppKey6 DisplayName=Ted
HKLM...Uninstall\AppKey7 DisplayName=Mary

Add/Remove Programs shows: Apple, Fred, a very large gap (all white in SP1, black and white in SP2), and Ted.

If I rename "AppKey7" to "AppKey7nowhasalongername", Add/Remove Programs shows: Apple, Fred, Mary, and Ted.

If I remove AppKey7 alltogether, Add/remove Programs shows: Apple, Fred and Ted.

It appears that changing the key name affects how Add/Remove Programs behaves. There is nothing wrong (as far as I know) with any of the other keys in HKLM...Uninstall. If I remove the keys AppKey5 and AppKey6, AppKey7 is still displayed incorrectly (as a gap in the list). Depending on the DisplayName of AppKey7, the gap will move up or down in the list of applications. Depending on the actual name of the AppKey7 key, sometimes the gap is there, sometimes it's not (and everything else is normal).

 

Some further testing has revealed the reason for the behavior. As other posts here and elsewhere indicate, the "gap" is related to the icon to be displayed with an application entry in the Add/Remove Programs list. Usually this is via the HKLM...Unibstall\AppKey\DisplayIcon variable. However, in this case, there was no such variable (or is it called a subkey?) for the entry causing the problem. So how is a bad icon being found?

It appears that Windows goes out of it's way to break itself. The information for each entry in the Add/Remove panel is found in the registry under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\AppName.
Additional information is in the registry under HKLM...\CurrentVersion\App Management\ARPcache\AppName, in a subkey call SlowInfoCache.

The AppName entry under ARPcache is created when Add/Remove Programs is started, if it does not already exist. I've not determined what all the bytes in the subkey mean, but there is a filename field and a "has icon" flag in it.
When the AppName/SlowInfoCache is created, the filename to place in the entry appears to be determined as follows: The value of HKLM...Uninstall\AppName\DisplayName is used to search for a directory of that name under C:\Program Files. If the directory exists, and it contains a file with a .exe extension, then that filename is placed in the SlowInfoCache subkey. It also turns on a flag indicating that the found file contains the icon to be displayed in the Add/Remove Programs entry. This flag is always turned on, regardless as to whether any icons exist in the file or not. The flag is only turned of if SlowInfoCache is created at the same time as the ARPcache\AppName key. If SlowInfoCache is deleted (but ARPcache\AppName is not), it is recreated when Add/Remove Programs is started, and the "has icon" flag will not be turned on (nor will the filename be populated).

If the found file format is such that it contains something that looks enough like an icon, Add/Remove Programs will attempt to use it. Hence, the "gap" appears in the filename list for this application entry. Depending on what is actually in the file, I suspect that the "gap" may appear in different forms.

The "has icon" flag appears to be the fifth byte in the SlowInfoCache byte string. The first few bytes will probably appear as 28 02 00 00 01 00 00 00.
If the 01 is edited to a 00, the Add/Remove Programs applet will then display the application entry correctly (with a default icon).

MS sure has some creative programmers.....

 

For more info on the white space problem and a free software repair, see the following:

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2005/05/26/422076.aspx

http://www.christensen-software.com/freeware.htm

 

yo bigbuck thanks for the help one question though, autocad will still execute correctly, right?

 

Yup! ....and it will show up in A/R Progs instead of the big space....

 

AutoCad Architectual Desktop 3.3 will also cause this problem.
The fix is identical to the AutoCad fix... remove the "comma".

Both programs will operate normally after the fixes.

 

This is very useful!!! Thanks I've been looking for this too!
My problem was with autocad 2002 too. Thanks again!

 

Cheers.

 

Thanks! Knew I had the problem on an old computer, and found out I had it on the new one as well.

Both fixed now!

 

DAYV, I don't know where you found the solution, but brother, I'd been looking for DAZE for the solution to the GIANT GAP in the add/remove list. Uninstalling Encarta WAS the solution. Isn't life grand? Thanks, bro.

DavoManiac

 

Got my fix from Phil here.

 

Run this windows utility.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301

Resolved the issue for me