Remove games from WinXP

[rob_d]

Here is a custom tool you can run to uninstall the Windows XP games, like solitaire, from your PCs. It is a modified VB script I found on the Internet. I don't know who the original author is, or I'd thank them.

Here is the VB script:

' Uninstall games from Windows XP
'================================================= ============================
Dim Fso : Set Fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
sPrograms = WshShell.SpecialFolders("AllUsersPrograms")
If (Fso.FolderExists(sPrograms & "\Games")) Then
' Create file for uninstalling games
Set f = Fso.CreateTextFile("c:\windows\inf\wmdtocm.txt", True)
f.WriteLine("[Components]")
f.WriteLine("freecell=off")
f.WriteLine("hearts=off")
f.WriteLine("minesweeper=off")
f.WriteLine("msnexplr=off")
f.WriteLine("pinball=off")
f.WriteLine("solitaire=off")
f.WriteLine("spider=off")
f.WriteLine("zonegames=off")
f.Close
WshShell.Run "sysocmgr.exe /i:c:\windows\inf\sysoc.inf /u:""c:\windows\inf\wmdtocm.txt"" /q", 1, True
Fso.DeleteFolder(sPrograms & "\Games"), True
End If

I run the script using PSExec. I put all of our Hyena custom tools on a network drive, so our admins can share them.

Make a new custom tool with this command below, and change it to point at your copy of psexec from www.winternals.com, and the server and share names, of course, and the Z: drive mapping too.

Z:\HyenaTools\PSTools\psexec.exe \\%E% -u DOMAINNAME\username cscript.exe "\\server\share\HyenaTools\RemoveGames\RemoveGames .vbs" //B

This runs with no interface on a user's PC, and you will be prompted for your password. Also note, if the person is playing a game during the uninstall, that particular game will not completely uninstall. For example, if they are playing solitaire, the file sol.exe will still exist in windows\system32. I haven't written the code to stop the proccesses before uninstall.