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

This article discusses 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. For more information about registry backup, see here

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.