How to Remove Unwanted Program Shortcuts from Windows Vista Welcome Center?

If you are using Windows Vista in a branded computer system, you might have probably noticed that the "Vista Welcome Center" shows some extra program shortcuts which came bundled with the machine like some promotional software and trialware.

Many people like me uninstall those crapware because they are more likely annoying than useful. But even you uninstall those software, Welcome Center keeps showing their shortcuts in the list but those shorcuts don't work any more obviously.

You can't remove them because there is no option available to remove them from Welcome Center but there is a hack available to remove those unwanted items from Welcome Center.

For this task, we'll need to edit a system file "oobe.xml" which can be found in "%windir%\System32\oobe\Info" folder. This file will only present in systems which are branded and contain a customized Welcome Center. You'll not find this file in a normal Vista PC.

Make sure to take a backup of this file before following this tutorial, so that you can restore it if you face any problem.

So following are simple steps to remove unwanted program shortcuts from Vista welcome center:

1. Go to "%windir%\System32\oobe\Info" folder and look for a file "oobe.xml". It might be present under "%windir%\System32\oobe\Info\Default\1033\" folder in some systems. Where 1033 is language code for English version. If you are using some other language Windows version, then replace 1033 with your language code.

2. Now open the file in Notepad (you might need to login as Administrator to be able to edit and save the file otherwise open Notepad as Administrator and then open the file).

3. When you'll open the file, you'll see various entries enclosed between <task> and </task> tags. Look for the desired item which you want to remove and delete all lines related to it between <task> and </task> tags. Make sure to delete the tags as well containing the item.

4. That's it. After editing the file, save it and re-open Welcome center. Now it'll not show the removed item.

This article was posted in Troubleshooting, Windows Vista.

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7 Comments

Jeet Chowdhury

Nice One...
MaxP

Really useful Thnx
thehitman777

I don't know if this is the right section to inquire from you about this problem that has been bugging me. I brought this up to a forum but no one seems to help me find a solution for this. My problem is I installed NBA 2K9 in my PC but when I tried to uninstall it, it is not appearing in the Programs and Features but it's in the C:Program Files. One of the members of the forum suggested that I delete the NBA folder but I'm afraid that doing so will affect the PC's operation since I did not uninstall it. Can you help me on this?
VG

^^ If you find any uninstall EXE file in game folder in "Program files", then run it and it should uninstall the game otherwise you can safely delete its folder. It'll not harm your system.
thehitman777

Thanks for your reply Vishal. I already searched for uninstall exe in game folder but there is none. So I can just delete the the NBA2K9 folder in C:Program Files? It will not harm the system? How about the registry? I really appreciate your reply here although I know this is not the right section to discuss it.
VG

^^ Yes. You can delete its folder from Program Files. If you also want to delete it from registry, then goto following keys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE

Look for a key which is related to "NBA2k9" under them. If you find any key. delete it.
thehitman777

Thank You so much Vishal. Way to go...God Bless.