XP Hotfix in my Add/Remove Programs section. What is it?

Message

Plinkerton · #1 Post by **Plinkerton** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 5:19 pm

What is this XP Hotfix, and why are there so many?

I was just curious, as I've never seen anything like that before.

Thanks a lot.

skanky · #2 Post by **skanky** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 5:30 pm

goto MS's knowledge base and type in the number, you'll get a hit off each one and what it does.

edit: the KB website is support.microsoft.com

Plinkerton · #3 Post by **Plinkerton** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 6:16 pm

Thanks a lot.

As long as they're supposed to be there.

lfeagan · #4 Post by **lfeagan** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 9:01 pm

Yeah, and the really good ? is not why there are so many. My feeling is moreso why are there so few, because "all" of those only fix about 1/10th of the security vulnerabilities present in XP.

Plinkerton · #5 Post by **Plinkerton** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 9:38 pm

haha... I was thinking that if I installed SP2, they would probably all go away huh?

I'm scared to do it...

slagmi · #6 Post by **slagmi** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 8:57 am

Nope, they won't go away, each time you get windows updates you'll get more. SP2 will add just another entry to the list.
It is possible to hack the registry and remove them from the list, but why risk it?

Plinkerton · #7 Post by **Plinkerton** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 11:16 am

Oh, they don't bother me at all. I won't be doing anything about them. i was just surprised to see a bunch of different things. I figured maybe they would have grouped them all together or something.

No worries...

lfeagan · #8 Post by **lfeagan** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 11:28 am

You are right, they really should group them altogether. It would make a lot more sense than putting them under the general category "Add/Remove Programs" as they aren't really programs, they are patches. It's not like you get a new program to run with a patch, hell, a lot of them don't even likely contain an single-image executable of any sort. I bet lots of them are full of DLL fixes and things of that sort. Perhaps something Windows should start considering adding would be an specialized listing for patches to Windows. It would help reduce the clutter as I know sometimes it feels like half my programs listing is patches. From a psychological standpoint though, I can see why Microsoft wouldn't want to list it seperately as it would point out more obviously the number of patches. But on the other hand having a nice integrated patch manager that listed what they fixed, etc readily available would be kinda slick.

Plinkerton · #9 Post by **Plinkerton** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 11:41 am

Yeah lfeagan, that would be slick.

A somewhat unrelated question:

There are some IBM programs that I know I will never use. They are in the start menu, but they don't seem to appear in the add/remove programs section. Specifically the Sonic CD Labeller thing. It's completely useless to me and always will be.

Is there a way do delete/uninstall this? I know I can just delete it off the start menu, but knowing it's there will still make me want to take it off.

lfeagan · #10 Post by **lfeagan** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 12:22 pm

Well, as a first alternative I would go on the Start Menu, right-click on the icon, and then see what the path is to the program executable. Then use Windows Explorer to go to the path and see if there is an uninstall.exe program there to allow you to uninstall it. Many times there is one lying around. If there is not though, then I would just go back up one level in the tree and remove the folder for that application, then remove it from the start menu. I will go grab my laptop and see if the specific application you mentioned has an uninstaller.

Plinkerton · #11 Post by **Plinkerton** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 12:29 pm

I just checked, and i didn't see one. For the most part, if a program doesn't have an uninstaller program in it's folder, and doesnt appear in the add/remove section, would I pretty much be safe just deleting the folder?

lfeagan · #12 Post by **lfeagan** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 12:53 pm

Yep, just delete the folder, all should be fine with that. The only other thing you could really check for would be registry keys that might be laying around. The registry editor tool is regedit. You just run it just by going to Start-->Run... and typing regedit as it is already in the system path. Be very careful if you decide to take this route as the registry is what makes up a lot of the "glue" that holds Windows seemingly seamless ability to do many things for novice users together.

Plinkerton · #13 Post by **Plinkerton** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 2:58 pm

lfeagan, I've messed with the registry before. I don't think I'll be doing it again. Everything went well, but I was really paranoid about screwing something up.

Thanks for the tip. I guess I'll go search for useless programs to delete.

It's like a witch hunt....

none · #14 Post by **none** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 3:26 pm

If you install XP Service Pack 2, they will actually "sort of" go away.. With SP2 they're still there, but under their own section (which you have to click on) in Add/Remove Programs. Personally though, I wouldn't secrifice my laptop to SP2 just to cover up the Windows Updates! SP2 Track Record -- Windows installs curropted by SP2: 3... Total machines I installde SP2 on: 3... Haha

Plinkerton · #15 Post by **Plinkerton** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 4:11 pm

None, that's funny that SP2 has given you problems... (not funny haha, funny.. well you know what I mean)

I don't really want to install it either, because of the posibility of a problem. For now, this computer does everything I want it to, and I don't want to screw anything up, for something I didn't really need in the first place. I'll definitely install SP2 eventually, but not yet.

There is actually a thread here about SP2, and it's a poll asking how many people have had problems with it. There are a HUGE number more of successful installs, over ones that caused problems.

none · #16 Post by **none** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 5:41 pm

If everythin works like it should, I really advice you not to install it until such time as you start seeing things like "Error: This program/driver requires XP Service pack 2"... The machines I installed it on were all "deeply configured", with lots of different programs, and lots of different hardware.. I suppose the more you have on a computer, the more likely it is you encounter a problem with it.. Just my two cents, lol...

XP Hotfix in my Add/Remove Programs section. What is it?

XP Hotfix in my Add/Remove Programs section. What is it?

Who is online