How to hide an entry in the Add/Remove Programs applet?

the methods to hide an entry in the Add/Remove Programs listing. Following any one of the methods is enough. This article is all about registry editing, so be sure to have appropriate backup(s) in place.


The Add/Remove Programs list is populated from the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Uninstall

Under the Uninstall key, there will be several sub-keys, each representing a software program that you installed. The following example shows how to hide the AnalogX Proxy entry from Add/Remove Programs listing:

Method 1

  • Click Start, Run and type Regedit.exe
  • Navigate to the following location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Uninstall \ AnalogX Proxy

  • In the right-pane, right-click the DisplayName value and choose Rename
  • Rename it to anything (For example, NoDisplayName )

The AnalogX Proxy entry is now hidden. To make it visible again, rename the value back to DisplayName

Method 2

  • Click Start, Run and type Regedit.exe
  • Navigate to the following location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Uninstall \ AnalogX Proxy

  • In the right-pane, create a new REG_DWORD value named SystemComponent
  • Double-click SystemComponent and set its data to 1

The AnalogX Proxy entry is now hidden. To make it visible again, delete the SystemComponent value that you created earlier.

More information

In this example, the name of the sub-key was AnalogX Proxy, which is easily identifiable. In some cases, the sub-key names are not obvious, and there will be a list of GUID entries similar to the following:

  • {00000409-78E1-11D2-B60F-006097C998E7}
  • {1CB92574-96F2-467B-B793-5CEB35C40C29}
  • {2318C2B1-4965-11d4-9B18-009027A5CD4F}
  • {350C97B0-3D7C-4EE8-BAA9-00BCB3D54227}

In such cases, you can select the entry and look in the right-pane for the DisplayName string. The string tells you the name of the application concerned.


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