Have you tried system restore?

 

Have you run any scans,could be a virus issue.

 

Maybe this link will help.

 

http://www.winxptutor.com/arpbuttons.htm

 

Tom

 

Don't know what else to suggest,you ran scans,system restore and editing the registry to no avail.Maybe you have to break out the CD.

 

In the meantime this program will remove programs until this issue is resolved.

 

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Uninstallers/Add-Remove-Pro.shtml

 

ccleaner also has a uninstall feature.

 

Are these buttons missing while in safe mode?

 

 

You have to edit the registry to fix this.

It is not difficult, but if you are uncomfortable with this, perhaps you should not try it.

 

Just follow the instructions through first, without doung anything, and see if you want to try it or not.

 

Before you start, back up the registry so that if you make a mistake you can restore it.

 

Back up the registry

Start/Run and type in

regedit

OK

 

File/Export

Give it a name you will recognise and save the file to the hard drive.  If you make an error in changing the program entries you can then restore everything by double clicking on this file.

 

To fix your problem

You will have to do the following for each program with the missing buttons

 

Click Start/Run and type in
regedit
OK

 

Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\SOFTWARE
\Microsoft
\Windows
\CurrentVersion
\Uninstall
\Program Name

 

In the right-pane, do the following:

Double-click NoRemove (REG_DWORD) and set it to 0

 

Double-click NoModify   (REG_DWORD) and set it to 0

 

If NoRemove is set to 1, the Remove button will be unavailable

 

If NoModify    is set to 1, the Change button will be unavailable