Windows XP Hacks

Remove “Uninstallable” XP Utilities

Think you can’t uninstall Windows Messenger, WordPad and similar components? Think again. This hack shows you how.

Windows has always had a problem with uninstalling software, and it’s particularly poor at uninstalling its own utilities, such as WordPad or Windows Messenger. Uninstalling these utilities can free up hard disk space if your hard disk is starting to fill up. And if you never use Windows Messenger, you most likely will want to uninstall it, because the program frequently launches itself automatically even after you’ve shut it down repeatedly, kind of like Dracula returning from the dead. It won’t bother you any longer if you uninstall it.

To remove XP utilities and components, you normally choose Control Panel → Add or Remove Programs → Add/Remove Windows Components to get to the Windows Component Wizard, shown in Figure 2-18. To uninstall a utility or component, just follow the wizard’s instructions.

Figure 2-18. The Windows Component Wizard

Ah, but there’s a catch. A number of Windows utilities and components—notably Windows Messenger and WordPad—don’t show in the Windows Component Wizard, so there’s no apparent way to uninstall them. But you can, in fact, remove these components. XP has a Setup Information file that controls what appears in the Windows Component Wizard. If you edit this file, you can force these components to appear ...