add/remove programs not populating ...

My friend's (XP) computer has just started this symptom: add/remove
comes up, but then just sits there. It does _not_ say "please wait while
list is populated". If we try the "windows components" part, that _does_
appear.

We did a restart in safe mode, and then it _did_ populate. But coming
back to normal mode - it still doesn't.

He _thinks_ it dates from when he tried to install a very old mapping
softwa when run, that said "you need Windows 95 or later" or
something like that. So he thought he'd better remove it - and that's
when A/R was found not to be working. (The old software didn't show up
in the list as it appeared under safe mode; by then he'd I think removed
it manually, but he wouldn't have touched the registry.)

I've googled - there seem to be plenty of people who have it hang at
"please wait ... populated", though some of them say it does appear
after 10 or 12 minutes. On Len's, that message doesn't appear.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
** http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/G6JPG-PC/JPGminPC.htm for ludicrously
outdated thoughts on PCs. **

"`You can run,' shouted Scotland Yard's Inspector Boothroyd in triumph as he
clutched the last remaining bottle of noxious potion and watched Dr. Jekyll leap
to freedom through the shattered window, `but you can't Hyde.'" - R.L. Bryant,
1992 Bulwer-Lytton