Add/Remove Programs not working

hotpocket, you may have a corrupted profile:

To create a duplicate of an user profile with a different user name, try this:

Create a new user account from Control Panel User Accounts applet

Logon to that account to initialize the newly created profile and log off

Login as Administrator (built-in Administrator account)

Open Control Panel System applet

Click the Advanced tab

Click Settings under User Profiles

Select a profile to copy from and choose "Copy To"

Type or browse to the profile to copy to (C:\Documents and Settings\username)

A new profile is now created which is the duplicate of your user profile.

d_may

Dale May

I've also just found Add or Remove Programs unresponsive (Win XP sp3).  It just hangs with rundll32.exe using up to 97% of my CPU.  On another site it was recommended to type in "appwiz.cpl"  WITHOUT QUOTES after clicking Start\Run, but it didn't work either.  I rebooted in Safe Mode to test it that way, as recommended elsewhere, and it  behaved the same: it appears to open but the list never appears. 

By sheer chance I found, in Safe Mode, that if I clicked Add/Remove Programs in control panel and then clicked Add/Remove Windows Components in the left menu, and then re-selected add/remove programs, VOILA!  The list populated almost immediately.   Unfortunately, this didn't work when I rebooted normally.

Another thread on this obviously common problem recommended going into regedit (Start\Run \ regedit) and navigating to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

to see if this has been incorrectly emptied by some errant install/uninstall, but this folder was far from empty.

HELP!!!  I have no idea what to try next.

no sorry, that didn't work, Add remove programs is just not on there.  I don't know if there is any way to download the program again and try reinstalling it, but anything would help

ok, and what is it I need to do?

what process or processes to I need to terminate?

I

Check your process tab after giving the three finger salute. I,m  thinking that two many resources are being used to open the add /remove programs list. 

If you can find out what is taking all the cpu"s that will help.

Dale May