When I go into the “Add/Remove Programs” control panel in Windows XP SP3 most of the programs which are listed do not have a “Remove” or “Change” button when highlighted. Is this normal? If so, how do I uninstall these programs? On an unrelated topic, when scanning the computer running Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 a vulnerability is reported with the following details: “Detected: www.viruslist.com/en/advisories/23655, C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.MSXML2_6bd6b9abf345378f_4.20.9848.0_x-ww_1b897e9a\msxml4.dll”. The advisory site recommends installing Windows Security Update for MSXML 4.0 Service Pack 2 (KB954430). However, installing this security update does not make any difference. In any case, should I just uninstall MSXML 4.0 since I have MSXML 6.0 installed on the computer?

The lack of any Remove or Change buttons in the Add/Remove Programs control panel could be caused by a variety of different factors. In the first instance, make sure that you are logged into the computer as an administrator since if you are only logged on under a limited user account then this could limit the number of programs which you are able to change or uninstall. To check whether your account is a computer administrator account, attempt to open the “User Accounts” control panel. If you are able to open this control panel that is a good indication in itself that you are a computer administrator. However, as a double-check, once you have opened the control panel you should see a listing of the accounts on your computer. Ensure that the account you are currently using is denoted as a “Computer Administrator” or “Administrator” account. If not, then you should logon to the computer using an administrator account and either remove your programs under that account or promote your user account to be a computer administrator and then log back on using your account to remove the programs.

Assuming that you are logged into the computer as an administrator, the next possible reason for this problem relates to some settings in the registry. There are certain registry settings that can be enabled to remove the Change and Remove buttons within the Add or Remove Programs control panel. These are designed more for enterprise environments where the network administrator wishes to implement policies preventing users from changing the programs installed on their computers. Even though such settings are designed for larger environments, it is still possible to implement them on home computers which may have happened in this case. So we will need to check some settings in the registry. Only proceed with the following instructions if you are confident in editing the Windows registry, as incorrectly changing any values could result in unpredictable consequences. Proceed at your own risk.

Assuming that you would like to continue, go to the “Start” menu > “Run” and type “regedit” (without the quotes) and click OK. In the Registry Editor window that appears, navigate to the following registry key (folder): HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Uninstall. For future reference, a registry key is essentially a “folder” within the Windows registry that contains several values (analogous to files) which set the particular settings which concern us. The Uninstall key is the location where policies related to uninstalling programs reside. Within the Uninstall key, in the right-hand pane of the Registry Editor window look for a value named “NoRemovePage”. This prevents the user from changing or removing the installed programs through removing the Change and Remove buttons. If this registry value is present, right-click on the value and select “Delete”. Close the registry editor and then log-off the computer and log back on to make the changes effective. Check the Add or Remove Programs control panel to see whether the problem has been fixed.

However, should the problem continue then we need to check some other configuration settings in the registry. If the “NoRemovePage” setting was enabled then this should disable the removal and changing facilities for all programs, not just selective applications. As you mention in your question that “most of the programs which are listed do not have a Remove or Change button” this then indicates the problem may not affect all the programs on your computer, but only selected programs. It is possible for the Remove and Change buttons to be disabled for specific applications. In the Registry Editor go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall. registry key. Please note that this is different to the previous registry key, as this key falls under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE branch of the registry, as opposed to the previous procedure which used the HKEY_CURRENT_USER branch.

Under this registry key you should see several sub-keys, each representing one of the programs listed in the Add or Remove Programs control panel. The name of the key should provide a clue as to the name of the program to which that key relates, but if the key is only a series of letters and numbers (e.g. ABCD-1234-EFGH…) then select the key and look at the DisplayName value in the right-hand pane to determine the name of the program. Find and select the registry key for one of the programs which does not have the Change or Remove buttons visible. Then, check whether the values NoRemove or NoModify exist in the registry key for that program. If either of these keys exist and their values are set to 1 then respectively the Remove or Change buttons will not be displayed. To re-enable the Remove and Change buttons, right-click on the NoRemove and/or NoModify values and select “Delete”. Again, you will need to log-off and then log back onto your computer to make the changes effective.

It is highly likely that one of the above procedures will fix the problem, so I will not continue to explore other resolutions. However, it is worthwhile noting that you should consider what triggered this problem to occur. Other users have reported that such problems occur after using system cleaning or optimizing utilities (which I am very wary about, and would generally recommend against using). That said, if you did use such a utility before the problem occurred then at least you know the cause and can ensure that you do not use the same utility and cause the same problem again. However, if you did not consciously do something to cause this problem then the worry is that some kind of virus or malware has installed on your computer, since such nasties have also been known to cause similar problems. Accordingly, I would strongly recommend that you complete a full antivirus scan on the computer to ensure that no viruses are resident. I would also suggest that you download and scan your computer using Ad-Aware Free (www.lavasoft.com), Spybot Search & Destroy (www.safer-networking.org), and Windows Defender (www.microsoft.com/downloads) to ensure that your computer is clean of such threats. This will also help ensure that once you have fixed the issue it does not reoccur.

Regarding your second query about the MSXML security vulnerability, you could try uninstalling MSXML 4.0 but there could be some software on your computer which requires version 4.0 of MSXML to be installed and uninstalling this version will cause problems with functionality of that software. Of course, you could try uninstalling MSXML 4.0 and see what happens and then reinstall the package if you find that something stops working and it actually is required. If you do need to reinstall the MSXML 4.0 package, or decide to keep this installed anyway, then make sure you visit Windows Update to download any security updates which may be available for that package. Assuming that your Windows installation is up-to-date, if you continue to receive the advisory from Kaspersky Internet Security about a potential vulnerability, yet all the relevant patches have been applied, then it would seem that Kaspersky is mis-detecting the fact that the package is still vulnerable. In this situation you should be able to ignore this advisory without adverse consequences, once you have ensured that your installation of Windows is completely up-to-date through Windows Update.