Creating C:\Program Folder Causes Add/Remove Program to Fail

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This article was previously published under Q170669

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SYMPTOMS

After you create a folder called C:\Program, if you then go to Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs, and select an installed program to remove or update, you get the following error message:

An error occurred while trying to remove "program_name"
Uninstallation has been cancelled

If you rename the folder called Program to, for example, Program2, you see the following message:

This change may impact one or more registered programs. Do you want to continue?

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CAUSE

In the registry under

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
   \...

any programs whose uninstall string value starts with C:\Progra~1 or "C:\Program Files\..." will fail to be removed if a C:\Program folder exists.

These examples will fail:

   UninstallString:reg_sz:c:\Program Files\My_program\setup setup

   UninstallString:reg_sz:"c:\Program Files\My_program\setup" setup

   UninstallString:reg_sz:c:\Progra~1\My_program\setup setup

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RESOLUTION

Perform the following steps to remove the desired application:

Rename the C:\Program folder.
Click the Start button, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Add/Remove Programs.
Click the application you want to remove, and then click Remove.
Click OK.
Rename the folder in step 1 back to its original name.

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 4.0. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

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