Accessing 'Hidden' Uninstalls

You may have noticed that you can't uninstall some of the things that come with Windows such as WordPad. Those programs aren't listed (even under Windows Components) in the "Add or Remove Programs" applet in the Control Panel. This is easy enough to take care of — but first, if needed, be sure to read our article Showing Hidden Files. Then read the following, and if you decide it is something you want to do, be sure to make a backup copy of the "sysoc.inf" file somewhere for safe keeping, before you make any changes — just in case something goes wrong or in case you simply wish to revert it to its original state.

After you have followed those directions (above) continue:

1. Click Start button
2. Click Run...
3. Type %WinDir%\inf\sysoc.inf
4. Click OK
5. The "sysoc.inf" file should open with Notepad or your default text editor.
   OR - if need be (in case the steps above do not work for you):
1. Open Notepad
2. Select File > Open...
3. Type %WinDir%\inf\sysoc.inf in the "File name:" text field
4. Click OK

When you have the "sysoc.inf" open you'll begin to see the light. In the items listed you should begin to notice that some of them have the "HIDE" attribute. One such example, WordPad, appears in the list like so:

MSWordPad=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wordpad.inf,HIDE,7

If you want WordPad to appear in the "Add or Remove Programs" utility to enable easy removal then you'd simply take out the word "HIDE" - changing the above line to the following:

MSWordPad=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wordpad.inf,,7

Just to make things clear, you want to delete ONLY the word "HIDE" itself. You're to leave the commas intact WITHOUT ANY space between them. When you're done you need only save the edited file (in its original location). Now each item that you removed the word "HIDE" from will appear in the "Add or Remove Programs" utility next time you open it.

If you then wanted to uninstall WordPad you'd simply:

1. Click Start button
2. Open the Control Panel
3. Open the "Add or Remove Programs" applet
4. Click on "Add/Remove Windows Components"
5. Double click "Accessories and Utilities"
6. Double click "Accessories"
7. Scroll down and uncheck the program you made visible and wish to remove (e.g. WordPad)
8. Click OK
9. Click Next
10. Follow any onscreen prompts

And there you have it, you have now removed WordPad (or whatever you decided to remove) from your system. I'm not sure what you gained from this but, hey, it's something interesting and it might be important to know someday.

OS: XP > Advanced
Date: 12/15/05

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