Windows XP Hacks [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Hack 17 Remove "Uninstallable" XP Utilities

Think you can't uninstall
Windows Messenger, WordPad and similar components? Think again. This
hack shows you how.

Windows has always had a problem with
uninstalling software, and it's particularly poor at
uninstalling its own utilities, such as WordPad or Windows Messenger.
Uninstalling these utilities can free up hard disk space if your hard
disk is starting to fill up. And if you never use Windows Messenger,
you most likely will want to uninstall it, because the program
frequently launches itself automatically even after
you've shut it down repeatedly, kind of like Dracula
returning from the dead. It won't bother you any
longer if you uninstall it.

To remove XP
utilities and components, you normally choose Control Panel
Add or Remove Programs Add/Remove Windows
Components to get to the Windows Component Wizard, shown in Figure 2-18. To uninstall a utility or component, just
follow the wizard's instructions.

Figure 2-18. The Windows Component Wizard

Ah, but there's a catch. A number of Windows
utilities and componentsnotably Windows Messenger and
WordPaddon't show in the Windows Component
Wizard, so there's no apparent way to uninstall
them. But you can, in fact, remove these components. XP has a
Setup Information file that
controls what appears in the Windows Component Wizard. If you edit
this file, you can force these components to appear in the Wizard,
and you can then remove them as you would any others.

To start, use Notepad or another text editor to open the Setup
Information file, sysoc.inf, which is generally
found in the
C:\WINDOWS\INF folder. For
safety's sake, make a backup of the file before
editing it, so you can revert to it if you need to. You should also
set up a System Restore point before making
the changes. To set up a System Restore point, choose Control Panel
Performance and Maintenance System Restore and
then follow the instructions.

C:\WINDOWS\INF is a hidden folder, so if you want to view its contents, you will have to enable hidden folders by going into Windows Explorer and choosing Tools Folder Options View and choosing Show Hidden Files and Folders.

When you open the file, look for the line describing the program you
want to uninstall. Lines in the file have the format:

program=program.dll,OcEntry,program.inf,,numeral

Programs that are uninstallable all have the word
hide (or HIDE) embedded in the
string. When this word is included in the string, the program
won't show up in the Windows Component Wizard. The
Pinball game entry, which doesn't show up in the
wizard, looks like this:

Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,HIDE,7

To force it to show up in the wizard, remove the word
hide from the entry that refers to the component
that you want to remove. For example, if you want to remove Pinball,
edit its entry to this:

Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,,7

Save the sysoc.inf
file, then run the Windows Component Wizard. The component will now
show up in the wizard. Remove it as you would any other component.

Keep in mind that not all of the entries in
sysoc.inf are as easy to understand as Pinball
and WordPad. For example, if you want to remove Windows Messenger,
look for the entry that starts with the text
msmsgs. If you want to remove the Accessibility
Wizard, look for the entry for AccessOpt. Table 2-4 lists the
"uninstallable"
programs their entries in the sysoc.inf file.

AccessOpt

MultiM

CommApps

AutoUpdate

TerminalServer

dtc

dom

WBEM

Pinball

MSWordPad

msmsgs

You may run into a few gotchas when trying to remove
"uninstallable" components. On some
systems, you simply won't be able to remove Windows
Messenger, because Windows Messenger won't show up
on the Windows Component Wizard even after you edit the
sysoc.inf file. And some components, such as
Terminal Server, will show up in the wizard if you edit the
sysoc.inf file, but the wizard still
won't let you uninstall them.

2.11.1 Hide Components You Don't Want to Be Uninstalled

You can use this same
technique in reverse to hide components you don't
want to be uninstalled accidentally. Simply put the word
HIDE in the proper place in the entry that you
don't want to show up in the Windows Component
Wizard. For example, if you want to hide the uninstall entry for the
fax utility, edit its entry by changing:

Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,,7

to:

Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,HIDE,7