Original Article – http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/windowstips/story/0,24330,3352313,00.html
Windows 2000 and XP hides certain files in this dialog box by default, but we’ll show you how to make things right.
Show All Files in Add/Remove Box
Like me, you want full, complete, and utter control over your computer. I guess Microsoft’s corporate policy isn’t exactly about options, but hey, that’s what TSS is for — to give you back control over your own machine.
Windows 2000 or XP doesn’t let you add or remove all the programs it installs by default. Multimedia applications, the XP messenger, games, accessories, and accessibility options do not show up in the Add/Remove Programs dialog box. What if you want to get rid of them? Here’s how to make Windows treat these applications just like it treats all the others.
Unhide all files
Search for sysoc.inf. Open it in notepad.
Look for the “Old Base Components” section in Windows 2000, and “Components” in XP. It will look approximately like this (depending on your version):
; old base components
Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,HIDE,7
AccessUtil=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,accessor.inf,HIDE,7
CommApps=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,communic.inf,HIDE,7
media_clips=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,mmopt.inf,HIDE,7
MultiM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,multimed.inf,HIDE,7
AccessOpt=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,optional.inf,HIDE,7
Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,HIDE,7
MSWordPad=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wordpad.inf,HIDE,7
The word “HIDE” in an entry hides that application from your Add/Remove Programs dialog box. To add games to the Add/Remove menu, delete the word HIDE from its entry (but leave the commas that surround it). You also have to remove “HIDE” from “AccessUtil=” for this tip to work. To unhide games, for example, my new “Old Base Components” Windows 2000 entry will look like the following:
; old base components
Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,,7
AccessUtil=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,accessor.inf,,7
CommApps=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,communic.inf,HIDE,7
media_clips=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,mmopt.inf,HIDE,7
MultiM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,multimed.inf,HIDE,7
AccessOpt=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,optional.inf,HIDE,7
Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,HIDE,7
MSWordPad=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wordpad.inf,HIDE,7
Save the file. Check for the new entries in the Add/Remove Programs dialog box after you restart your computer.