When I go to the “Start” menu > “Control Panel” and open “Add or Remove Programs” a message appears saying “Please wait while the list is being populated”. However, the list of installed programs never appears but instead that message just remains on screen. How can I fix this problem and view the list of installed applications? The computer is running Windows XP SP3.

When researching your question on the internet there appears to be quite a few other users experiencing the same problem, with various ways to fix the issue. We will work through the possible solutions logically (from easiest to most involved) so we can attempt to resolve the problem. First, some users have reported the Add or Remove Programs control panel can hang when an external hard drive is plugged into the computer. If there is an external drive connected to the computer then try disconnecting the drive before opening the Add or Remove Programs control panel to see whether this fixes the problem.

Should this procedure not be applicable in your situation, or not resolve the problem, you can try re-registering the APPWIZ.CPL file. This is the file which handles the Add or Remove Programs control panel. If this file has not been registered with Windows correctly it could cause the incorrect display of that control panel. To re-register the file, go to the “Start” menu > “Run” and type “REGSVR32 APPWIZ.CPL” (without the quotes) and click OK. A message should appear saying “DllRegisterServer in APPWIZ.CPL succeeded”. Now check whether you can successfully access the Add or Remove Programs control panel.

If the problem continues check whether a background program or process is interfering with the ability of Windows to correctly load the Add or Remove Programs control panel listing of installed programs. Close all open programs (including those running in the Windows system tray, next to the clock). Now you will need to close hidden processes running in the background. Press CTRL-ALT-DEL to open the Windows Task Manager. In the window that appears click the “Processes” tab and then the “User name” heading to sort the processes by user (if this heading is not visible go to the “View” menu > “Select Columns” and tick “User Name” then click OK). Close all processes running under your user name with the exception of “explorer.exe” (which is the Windows graphical user interface) and “taskmgr.exe” (the Windows Task Manager, which you are currently using to close the background processes). Once all background processes, with the exception of the previously mentioned two have been closed, check whether the problem continues. If not, one of those background processes was causing the problem. In this situation it will be a process of elimination to determine the problematic program or process. To do this, I suggest that you close the programs and processes one-by-one, each time checking whether the problem persists. Once the problem stops you know that the most recently closed program or process was causing the problem. In this situation you can take additional action such as uninstalling that program or process or researching the problem further to see whether there is a way to solve the issue.

However, should a background process not be causing the problem you can next try running the Windows System File Checker (SFC) utility. This will scan the computer for missing or corrupt Windows system files and replace these with known good copies. Make sure you have your original Windows XP CD handy as you might be prompted for this CD during the SFC process. When you are ready to commence go to the “Start” menu > “Run” and type “sfc /scannow” (without the quotes, but make sure you include the space between the “sfc” and “/scannow” portions of the command) and click OK. The SFC will commence operation immediately. Once it has completed it will exit silently with no user feedback. After the SFC has completed, restart the computer and check whether the problem continues.

In the event that the problem is still not resolved we need to look at more technical solutions to this problem. As a starting point, take a look at the following article at Microsoft Knowledge Base: support.microsoft.com/kb/266668 . We have already completed the first suggested step in this article, involving re-registering the APPWIZ.CPL file, but have not yet done the more in-depth solution involving editing the Windows Registry. Therefore, should you wish to proceed, I suggest that you print this article and then methodically work through the steps to see whether this resolves the problem. Be aware, the article involves editing the Windows Registry which is a very sensitive part of the Windows system. As such, I only suggest that you follow this procedure if you are confident in editing the Windows Registry. Additionally, make sure that you have a full backup of all files and folders which you wish to keep before embarking on this process just in case things go wrong.

Should the previous registry procedure not fix the problem there is another we can try. Some users have reported the behaviour being experienced is due to a bad icon. You will notice that in a normal Add or Remove Programs control panel, each of the entries has an icon next to the entry, which is generally the icon for that program. If the reference to the icon has become corrupt then it is possible this could be causing the entire listing of programs to not load correctly. Again, this procedure involves editing the registry, so only complete this if you are confident in editing the registry and you have a full backup of all important data just in case things go pear shaped. Assuming you would like to proceed, open the Registry Editor (“Start” menu > “Run” and type “regedit” without the quotes then click OK). Navigate to the following key in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall . Once at this registry key you will see many sub-keys (these look like sub-folders). Go through each of these keys and check whether they have a property called “DisplayIcon”. If so, check whether the value for the DisplayIcon property has a -1 at the end. If so, change this to be a 0. For example, you may see a registry key with the property “DisplayIcon” and value “C:\Program Files\DivX\DivX Codec\config.exe,0”. This is correct. However, if the value was instead” C:\Program Files\DivX\DivX Codec\config.exe,-1” then this would need to be changed to have a 0 instead of -1 (as in the previous example). To change the value, simply double-click on DisplayIcon and a window will appear allowing you to edit the value. Additionally, not every registry key will have a DisplayIcon property so do not panic if you don’t see this property for a few of the keys. Once you have checked all the keys, and made any appropriate corrections, close the Registry Editor and check whether the problem continues.

If you still have the problem after attempting the procedures mentioned previously, please contact me again for additional advice.