Recover your 'Remove Programs' List

[Guest gpcarreon (MVP)]

Back in my Tanager years and even up to present Hurricane time, I have been introduced to a 'bug' in the phone: Remove Programs List appears empty when you have more than 50 programs installed on your phone.

For this article I will share with you techniques on how to backup 'AppInstall' key (including contents) using a registry editor. ;)

The principle behind this backup technique can be used to recover your Remove Programs list. I hope you will learn something from this tutorial...

'AppInstall' holds the list of installed programs. The exact location of this registry key is: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security\AppInstall

What we see inside 'AppInstall' key reflects items on the Remove Programs list:

Perhaps most of us are aware that when our installed programs reaches 50, the phone's 'Remove Programs' list appears empty. I have no idea why the phone behaves that way. What we are going to deal with on this article is how to backup 'AppInstall' items. It is important to emphasize that what we will do is a 'backup' and not registry key/s deletion. Each item inside AppInstall holds very important informations as InstallDir and Uninstall strings. Deleting those items would result into re-installation and uninstallation problems.

What we need to accomplish a backup task are:

1. SDA Unlocker

2. Registry Editor. I recommend RESCO. It has copy-paste function. Ensure that you have enabled RESCO's Registry add-in in order to view your phones registry.

Once you have the SDA Unlocker, sync your phone to PC then press 'Remove Lock'. How safe it is? Kindly check comments here. You cannot access or modify AppInstall since it is a protected registry key, hence you need the unlocker.

To backup...

1. Fire up RESCO then navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security

2. Hit Action > New > Key. Name it 'Backup'

3. Highlight 'AppInstall' key > Action (left soft-key) > Copy

4. Highlight 'Backup' key > Action > Paste

5. You now have a backup of your AppInstall key.

In the event that you reach the 50-program limit, you can just cut-paste a key to 'Backup' ensuring that the list is maintained at < 50 (less than 50). You no longer need ActiveSync here. All you need is a fully registry unlocked Smartphone and a phone registry editor.

I hope that helps! :D

[Guest freeloader]

Oh this is so annoying. I'm having this problem on my WM5 PocketPC but not because of 50+ apps but because a software installation through ActiveSync failed.

Now my 'Remove Programs' list is empty. Googling all over the net and I still can't find a solution. ;)

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

Software installation fail should not empty the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security\AppInstall registry entry :?

Have you tried a soft reset (reboot) to see if that fixes your problem?

[Guest pencilcase]

I have the exact same problem, tried your solution without luck ... tried about 3 soft-resets without luck either... kinda lost on what to do it wont install/deinstall anything anymore!

[Guest xda_gangsta]

wow now I have the same problem, I don't wanna deal with this so I think its about time for a hardreset nayways and I better be careful not to go over 50... I can't believe such a good phone does this