PROBLEM ACCESSING "ADD AND REMOVE PROGRAMS" IN CONTROL PANEL

Dear Forum:

Recently, I ran a program that was suppose to clean up my registry (TuneUp Utilities 2003). A couple of days after I ran the program, I found I had a problem with a shortcut icon on my desktop. (I also found out that the same problem persists in the Control Panel, but I'll explain later what I mean by this.) The shortcut icon on my desktop is for "Add or Remove Programs." The problem, which only happens intermittently, is this:

Once I click on the icon that I mentioned above, a new window opens up, and at the top of that window on the left side it says, "Currently installed programs," and on the right side it says, "Sort by." This is correct. It should say exactly that. But underneath "Currently installed programs," it should say, "Please wait while list is being populated . . . ." Then there should be a brief pause, and then I should see my prgrams listed in alphabetical order.

The problem is that all I see is "Currently installed programs" on the left, and "Sort by" on the right. The program seems to hang up after that. I never see "Please wait while list is being populated," and the list of programs never appears. All I see is an empty window.

Now, as I said above, this happens intermittently. Most of the time, I have to close that empty window I mentioned above, and then click on the icon a second time. After that, the program seems to work just fine. But even then it doesn't always work. Sometimes I have to click on the icon a third time before it will actually list my programs.

I found out I have the same problem when I click on the "Add or Remove Programs" icon in the Control Panel. Sometimes it works, but other times it doesn't. This is very frustrating, to say the least.

Is there anyone out there who can tell me what I did wrong, and if there is any way I can fix this problem? Did I unwittingly change or erase a crucial registry key by using that "TuneUp Utility" I mentioned in the beginning? Please inform me. I would truly appreciate all the help you can give.

Thanks so much, in advance.

Wade

P.S. - Incidentally, I tried doing a "System Restore"  to an earlier date, but the problem did not go away.