[JAYNO20]

For some reason just as of last night, most of my programs arent showing up in the add/remove list in windows xp. The icons for the ones that actually do show up have been removed too all that shows up is a generic installer icon... what happened?

[ozrom1e]

The fact that you don't have the uinstall registry entry is the cause of your problem. The list in the add/remove programs is build on that entry key.
I don't have a specific solution for this but a good shot could be repairing the windows installation.
A Repair Install will replace the system files with the files on the XP CD used for the Repair Install. It will leave your applications and settings intact, but Windows updates will need to be reapplied.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

[JAYNO20]

any chance a system restore will work?

[ozrom1e]

Don't know you can try it. Do you know when this started? You should go back before it started.

[JAYNO20]

restore fixed it...do you happen to know exactly where in the registry uninstall info is kept?

[kniht]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Uninstall