One day not too long ago, I started my Add/Remove Programs applet to uninstall an application. To my initial surprise and later horror, all of the buttons were gone. I could view the list of installed applications, but couldn't do anything with them -- no Remove button! After spending most of the day searching on the web for a fix, I came to realize that many others had the same problem but there wasn't a definitive answer to fix the problem. The point of this post is to give the reader several options to fix the problem. Q: Where did the buttons go? A: It was a corruption of the registry. Keys were deleted. Windows could no longer find the uninstaller associated with the application. Programs like Registry Mechanic cannot fix this problem. I know because I tried. There are four ways to fix the problem. They are ordered by increasing impact on your computer and possibly your life: If you have Windows XP, run System Restore . Slowly step backwards in time until the problem is ...
My lifelong quest for playful programming and simple, reliable computing in all of its forms