Add or Remove Programs list has extra space with black blocks and white space.

Question

This issue causes the list to be VERY long with a few programs listed at the top and then a lot of white spaces and black blocks in betweent the rest of the programs.  I dont have autocad and I have ran the .exe that checks for negative results in DisplayIcon.  Neither of these have fixed the problem.  I have had this problem for a while, so I dont know what install or uninstall caused this issue.  Does anybody know of anything else to fix this issue?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I did some more research online and found another thread about this issue.  I downloaded 'Add Remove Pro' and compared the list of installed items on the list provided by that software and the list the computer gives me.  I uninstalled a couple of programs that were listed in between the programs that were before and after the empty space in the list that the Add/Remove on my pc gave me.  After uninstalling a few items that were in between and restartig the pc, the blank gap is gone.

Answer 2

This thread is over a  year old... but my laptop developed a terrible case of "large black blocks in the Add and Remove pane".  Searching produced a link to this Support page...

Downloaded and ran ARPNegCheck.vbs and it produced:

Add/Remove Programs entries with negative icon references

.........................................................

<-----Begin----->

Registry Path : HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Microsoft Security Client

DisplayIcon   : C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client\EppManifest.dll,-100

Registry Path : HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall{CDDADA0F-0D8E-48CD-AA09-D9C6A63462AE}

DisplayIcon   : C:\WINDOWS\system32\nise.dll,-100

<-----End----->

Note:

---

 HKCU refers to HKEY_CURRENT_USER

 HKLM refers to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

For additional help, visit http://windowsxp.mvps.org/feedback.htm

Huh.  -100 in two places; the first for Microsoft's "Security Client" (which I believe is Microsoft Security Essentials), the second is for (I think) a National Instruments product.

I can think of a few things to try to fix.. but I'm new to this level of Windows.  What's my next step?

Mark

(edited)

The link to http://windowsxp.mvps.org/feedback.htm appears broken with a 404 error.

Answer 3

The following KB addresses various symptoms that may be observed when trying to enumerate or display program items in "Add/Remove Programs":

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/266668

Symptoms: "When you install and uninstall programs, the Add/Remove Programs tool in Control Panel may display the installed programs incorrectly. The Currently Installed Programs box may contain only a single text string, ormay display a large blank space before the program entries. Other display problems may include that there are no listed programs..."

Answer 4

Ramesh,

Thanks for that suggestion.  I tried it and I have no negative icon references.  I still have the problem.  Do you know of anything else I can try?

Thanks,

Alex

Answer 5

Hi aldogg22,

Perhaps there is a negative icon reference for one of the entries there.

Download the VBScript file ARPNegCheck.vbs from here:

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/utils/

Save to desktop and run it. This script lists all the negative icon references present in the registry, and write the information to a text file. It creates a text file named "NegativeIcons.txt" on your Desktop. Copy the contents of that file and post the info here.

---

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Desktop Experience]