HOWTO: Remove Games from Windows Setup, Add Remove Programs

ID: Q203492

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, 98 Second Edition

SUMMARY

This article describes how to prevent GAMES from appearing under Accessories in the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs. Accessories is on the Windows Setup tab in Add/Remove Programs.

MORE INFORMATION

To remove the option for GAMES under Add/Remove Programs, rename the section [GAMES] to [NOGAMES]:

For Windows 95 the file to modify is Windows\Inf\Applets.inf

For Windows 98 the file to modify is WINDOWS\Inf\Appletpp.inf

Administrators can automate the process by adding a line similar to the following in the login script:


Cscript \\<server>\<share>\NOGAMES.VBS //T:5 //B

Where <server> is the name of the server and <share> is the name of the share. //T:5 Terminates the script after five seconds if it is still running. //B Tells the script to run in non-interactive mode.

Sample Code

The NoGames.vbs sample below automatically renames the section to NOGAMES.

NOTE: Windows Script Host (WSH) must be installed on a Windows 95 machine to run VBScript. For more information on WSH and how to install it please visit the Scripting Web site on the MSDN Scripting site. Using a text editor, create a VBScript file called NoGames.vbs with the following lines:


' NOGAMES.VBS removes games from Add/Remove under Windows setup
' Windows 95 requires Windows Script Host to run the script.
' Windows Script Host is built into Windows 98

Const ForReading = 1, ForWriting = 2, ForAppending = 8

'*** The following 3 lines get the path of the INF folder
Set WSHShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set WshSysEnv = WshShell.Environment("PROCESS")
INFfolder = WshSysEnv("WINDIR") & "\INF"  

'*** The applet function returns the name of the INF
'*** that has the game section based on Windows version.
Function Applet()
  WinVerPath = _
  "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\VersionNumber"
  On Error Resume Next
  WinVer = WSHShell.RegRead(WinVerPath)
  If WinVer = "4.00.950" then
    Applet = INFfolder & "\APPLETS"  'Win95 or Win95a
  ElseIf WinVer = "4.00.1111" then
    Applet = INFfolder & "\APPLETS"  'Win95b or Win95c
  ElseIf WinVer = "4.10.1998" then
    Applet = INFfolder & "\APPLETPP" 'Win98
  ElseIf WinVer = "4.10.2222" then   
    Applet = INFfolder & "\APPLETPP" 'Win98 Second Edition
  Else
    WScript.Quit        'Unknown version exit script
  End If
End Function

'*** The following section copies the file to be modified
'*** to *.bak then recreates the original file with [nogames]
Set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
File1 = Applet() & ".INF"   'path and file with [games]
File2 = Applet() & ".BAK"   'name of backup file.
fs.copyfile file1, file2    'copy file1 to file2
Set A = fs.OpenTextFile(File2, ForReading, False)
Set b = fs.CreateTextFile(File1, True)
Do While a.AtEndOfStream <> True    
  textline = a.ReadLine    
  if StrComp(trim(textline), "[GAMES]", vbTextCompare)=0 then
    textline ="[NOGAMES]"
  end if
  b.WriteLine textline
Loop
a.Close
b.Close

REFERENCES

For additional information on scripting, and the Windows Script Host, see the MSDN Scripting site.

Additional query words: Freecell hearts minesweeper solitaire games

Keywords : kbWinOS95 kbWinOS98 kbWSH
Version : WINDOWS:95,98,98 Second Edition
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto