Q/A – How to hide a program in Add/Remove Programs?


April 20, 2009

Setting ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT property to 1 does make the application program to be hidden in the Add/remove programs.

The ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT property in Windows Installer does not actually do anything directly to your installation. The Add/Remove Programs (ARP) applet always queries the Windows Installer for application and patch information to display on the Control Panel Window. When ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT is not defined for a package, all the data is read from the registry key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall.

When the property is set to 1, these entries are not written in the registry and hence, do not appear in the Control Panel Add/remove applet.

Also, setting ARPNOREMOVE property to 1 will just disable the remove button from Add/remove Programs.

Check the link below for more information on other MSI Properties
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370905(VS.85).aspx






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  • VIveka

    If a system appln program not listed/ Remove button disabled in Add/Remove program, As system admin how I can remove the application without the help of a packager? If I set the registry key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall” to 0, will I able to uninstall?

  • VIveka

    If a system appln program not listed/ Remove button disabled in Add/Remove program, As system admin how I can remove the application without the help of a packager? If I set the registry key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall” to 0, will I able to uninstall?

  • Anonymous

    u can uninstall any application by using the product code of that app. U can go to the same reg entry “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\. there u can get the product code of the app which u want to uninstall. then u can go to the cmd prompt and give this cmmnd.

    msiexec /x {product code}
    it will be uninstalled.

  • Anonymous

    u can uninstall any application by using the product code of that app. U can go to the same reg entry “HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall. there u can get the product code of the app which u want to uninstall. then u can go to the cmd prompt and give this cmmnd.msiexec /x {product code}it will be uninstalled.

  • Vijay

    @anonymous – Thanks for your comments. I would request you to please mention your name henceforth. It would be great to know ur name..rather than being “anonymous”

  • Vijay

    @anonymous – Thanks for your comments. I would request you to please mention your name henceforth. It would be great to know ur name..rather than being “anonymous”

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