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When they wish to install and especially uninstall a program, users access the Add or Remove Programs component in the Control Panel. However, this window has many other options that a system administrator, for example, would remove for safety reasons. As we’ve grown accustomed to it by now, Microsoft does not allow users to customize this window in the "old-fashion" way, therefore a workaround is needed and a few modifications to the registry must be performed. That’s where we come in and, fortunately, the registry patching is fast and very easy to perform. For starters, if you’re not familiar with the tweaking process, please take the time to read the first article that will help you understand what the bolded lines below mean and what you should do with them.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Uninstall]
"NoRemovePage"=dword:00000001

With just the above two lines, the Change or Remove Programs button will be nowhere to be seen. Thus, the most popular uninstallation procedure in Windows will become impossible to perform. Yet, be advised that you’re just hiding a button, and this procedure only does not make it very difficult to remove programs from a computer.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Uninstall]
"NoRemovePage"=dword:00000000

Naturally, hiding the button is not an irreversible procedure. So, if you want this command back, just replace 1 with 0, like in the example above, and you’ll be happy to see it reappearing in this Control Panel window.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Uninstall]
"NoAddFromInternet"=dword:00000001

If you click on the Add New Programs button in the Add or Remove Programs window, two options will be available: Add programs from Microsoft, and Add a program from CD-ROM or floppy disk. The above two lines will make the first alternative disappear.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Uninstall]
"NoAddFromCDorFloppy"=dword:00000001

As you’ve probably guessed already, adding the above lines to tweaks.reg, will remove the second option after running the optimization file. No need to say that replacing 1 with 0 will, of course, re-enable this alternative.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Uninstall]
"NoAddPage"=dword:00000001

If you want both of the above-mentioned options removed, then you should just hide the Add New Programs command and that’s exactly what the lines above will do.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Uninstall]
"NoWindowsSetupPage"=dword:00000001

The Add/Remove Windows Components Button enables you to uninstall vital components and services of your XP operating system, like Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Internet Information Services (IIS), or the Indexing service. Therefore, if you wish to make sure that it cannot be accessed, you can easily hide it by just adding the above two lines to the tweaks.reg file.