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Get Rid of Windows XP Frills

By Mohammad Yousef | June 2004

All Windows users know that Microsoft has always shipped Windows with several toppings. To many of us they are unnecessary if not annoying. The latest of these add-ons is the Windows Messenger which many users have been trying to disable. Well, how about completely uninstalling Windows XP frills such as Windows Messenger, WordPad, the boring games (Minesweeper, Hearts…), Accessibility Wizard, and MSN Explorer? Unless you actually use these apps, I suppose you’d love to get rid of them. The problem is they don’t appear on the Add/Remove Programs list and the reason is that Windows is told to hide them. To make these Windows components appear on the Add/Remove Programs list, all you have to do is follow my instructions carefully.

First of all, you need to open the file sysoc.inf, which is located in the folder “C:\WINDOWS\inf”, with Notepad. You should notice the word “HIDE” in several locations throughout the file. Each “HIDE” is responsible for hiding a certain Windows component from the Add/Remove list. Because the file’s a bit ambiguous, I recommend deleting every “HIDE” in the file. This way all the components will be visible in the Add/Remove list and, from there, you can choose what you want to uninstall and what you want to keep. Be careful not to delete anything else. Not even the commas before and after the “HIDE” should be deleted. After saving the file, click Start, Control Panel and Add or Remove Programs. Then click Add/Remove Windows Components. You can uninstall Windows components by removing the check marks and clicking Next. Now you can shout in glory after having recovered a few precious megabytes of your terabyte hard disk!