"Turn Windows Features On or Off" (Optionalfeatures.exe) empty lis

Hi,

I have the latest RTM of windows Vista (installed Jan 1) on a desktop
machine. I went into the "Programs->Turn Windows features on or off" item
under control panel (this opens up optionalfeatures.exe) and enabled a few
features and it worked fine.

Vista has been pretty unstable on my machine from the start and sometimes it
just displays a quick blue screen and reboots. I did a "last known good
configuration" option on restart to boot into it and it worked. But from then
onwards my "windows features" list does not display ANYTHING> It's totally
empty. I can see "please wait" initially as it tries to make up a list but
then it totally blanks out. I can close the window and click help etc (the
program is responding), but the list is totally blank.

Anybody knows what's going on here? Any suggestions as on how to get this
working? Are there any alternate ways of enabling/disabling "features" (for
instance something in the registry)?

I did some more research on this and found that there was a "thread exit"
event just after OptionalFeatures.exe tried to look at the registry key
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\CTF\KnownCl asses". I did not have
this in my registry (probably the result of a crash).

I tried adding that key in there and then noticed another error about not
finding
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\CTF\KnownCla sses\Systreeview32. This
is quite possibly the treeview control needed to render the "features" that
can be turned on and off. I then searched for the string in the registry
and - guess what - the system crashed and rebooted again.

I was wondering whether someone could export their
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\CTF\KnownCl asses" branch and post it
here if it's not too large. I could save some time by importing it and
checking if it solves the issue.

Thanks in advance!
~George.

To George, To All:

I am also having the same difficulty. As I wait for my academic upgrade
(I'm a grad student at Vanderbilt) to Vista Business, it seems like the RC1
(5600) is just getting buggier and buggier. I'd love to hear if there's a
solution or workaround to this problem, because our ITS here has no definited
date on when the final version DVDs will actually go out. So, if anyone has
figured out a way to resolve the "Please wait" hang in the Windows Features
(as George noted, the "optionalfeatures.exe" program), I'd be glad to hear it.

Thanks in advance, and all the best.

Sincerely,
Dahron Johnson
Vanderbilt Divinity School

"George" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have the latest RTM of windows Vista (installed Jan 1) on a desktop
> machine. I went into the "Programs->Turn Windows features on or off" item
> under control panel (this opens up optionalfeatures.exe) and enabled a few
> features and it worked fine.
>
> Vista has been pretty unstable on my machine from the start and sometimes it
> just displays a quick blue screen and reboots. I did a "last known good
> configuration" option on restart to boot into it and it worked. But from then
> onwards my "windows features" list does not display ANYTHING> It's totally
> empty. I can see "please wait" initially as it tries to make up a list but
> then it totally blanks out. I can close the window and click help etc (the
> program is responding), but the list is totally blank.
>
> Anybody knows what's going on here? Any suggestions as on how to get this
> working? Are there any alternate ways of enabling/disabling "features" (for
> instance something in the registry)?

I also have the same issue on Vista where the list is empty and that
registry key seems empy.

Did anyone manage to solve this? If so how.

Cheers

Steve


--
sgs

I am having this difficulty as well. Found a KB article (931712) that
instructed how to fix but fix did not work. Anyone have any success solving
this problem?

Thanks,

Mike

"DJcontraption" wrote:

> To George, To All:
>
> I am also having the same difficulty. As I wait for my academic upgrade
> (I'm a grad student at Vanderbilt) to Vista Business, it seems like the RC1
> (5600) is just getting buggier and buggier. I'd love to hear if there's a
> solution or workaround to this problem, because our ITS here has no definited
> date on when the final version DVDs will actually go out. So, if anyone has
> figured out a way to resolve the "Please wait" hang in the Windows Features
> (as George noted, the "optionalfeatures.exe" program), I'd be glad to hear it.
>
> Thanks in advance, and all the best.
>
> Sincerely,
> Dahron Johnson
> Vanderbilt Divinity School
>
> "George" wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have the latest RTM of windows Vista (installed Jan 1) on a desktop
> > machine. I went into the "Programs->Turn Windows features on or off" item
> > under control panel (this opens up optionalfeatures.exe) and enabled a few
> > features and it worked fine.
> >
> > Vista has been pretty unstable on my machine from the start and sometimes it
> > just displays a quick blue screen and reboots. I did a "last known good
> > configuration" option on restart to boot into it and it worked. But from then
> > onwards my "windows features" list does not display ANYTHING> It's totally
> > empty. I can see "please wait" initially as it tries to make up a list but
> > then it totally blanks out. I can close the window and click help etc (the
> > program is responding), but the list is totally blank.
> >
> > Anybody knows what's going on here? Any suggestions as on how to get this
> > working? Are there any alternate ways of enabling/disabling "features" (for
> > instance something in the registry)?

Hi Mike, dont know if is will help you but I solved it on my pc. I had
two issues in the end and did the following:

1) renamed c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution to move it out the way as
the contents of that folder were corrupted. Windows update just
recreated it and once I washappy I then removed the old folder.

2) I had had VB6 installed whihc had installed some old common
controls. Just reinstalled Vista over the top and all worked fine.

Hope that helps

Steve


--
sgs

Hi Steve, tried both suggestions. Cannot rename
c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution as got message saying I don't have permission
to rename it. I am using Administrator user account. As for your second
suggestion, how do I reinstall Vista on top of VB6. Is there an updated
version of VB?

Charlie

"sgs" wrote:

>
> Hi Mike, dont know if is will help you but I solved it on my pc. I had
> two issues in the end and did the following:
>
> 1) renamed c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution to move it out the way as
> the contents of that folder were corrupted. Windows update just
> recreated it and once I washappy I then removed the old folder.
>
> 2) I had had VB6 installed whihc had installed some old common
> controls. Just reinstalled Vista over the top and all worked fine.
>
> Hope that helps
>
> Steve
>
>
> --
> sgs
>

sgs and Charlie,

Working with Microsoft Tech Support last week, I reinstalled Vista and
resolved the problem. Did the install as an upgrade and didn't affect other
files and apps. Took about 3 hours. Did reset some display features back to
defaults but that was minor to correct. Windows Features box is now
populated with about 30+ items and I was able to activate IIS. I was told by
Tech that there was no other solution at this time. A bit of a hassle but
should solve the problem - at least for now.

Mike G.

"Charlie" wrote:

> Hi Steve, tried both suggestions. Cannot rename
> c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution as got message saying I don't have permission
> to rename it. I am using Administrator user account. As for your second
> suggestion, how do I reinstall Vista on top of VB6. Is there an updated
> version of VB?
>
> Charlie
>
> "sgs" wrote:
>
> >
> > Hi Mike, dont know if is will help you but I solved it on my pc. I had
> > two issues in the end and did the following:
> >
> > 1) renamed c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution to move it out the way as
> > the contents of that folder were corrupted. Windows update just
> > recreated it and once I washappy I then removed the old folder.
> >
> > 2) I had had VB6 installed whihc had installed some old common
> > controls. Just reinstalled Vista over the top and all worked fine.
> >
> > Hope that helps
> >
> > Steve
> >
> >
> > --
> > sgs
> >

Thanks, Mike. But I don't want to spend 3 hours on what is obviously a Vista
bug. Perhaps Microsoft would issue a patch via Windows Update?

"Mike G." wrote:

> sgs and Charlie,
>
> Working with Microsoft Tech Support last week, I reinstalled Vista and
> resolved the problem. Did the install as an upgrade and didn't affect other
> files and apps. Took about 3 hours. Did reset some display features back to
> defaults but that was minor to correct. Windows Features box is now
> populated with about 30+ items and I was able to activate IIS. I was told by
> Tech that there was no other solution at this time. A bit of a hassle but
> should solve the problem - at least for now.
>
> Mike G.
>
> "Charlie" wrote:
>
> > Hi Steve, tried both suggestions. Cannot rename
> > c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution as got message saying I don't have permission
> > to rename it. I am using Administrator user account. As for your second
> > suggestion, how do I reinstall Vista on top of VB6. Is there an updated
> > version of VB?
> >
> > Charlie
> >
> > "sgs" wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > Hi Mike, dont know if is will help you but I solved it on my pc. I had
> > > two issues in the end and did the following:
> > >
> > > 1) renamed c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution to move it out the way as
> > > the contents of that folder were corrupted. Windows update just
> > > recreated it and once I washappy I then removed the old folder.
> > >
> > > 2) I had had VB6 installed whihc had installed some old common
> > > controls. Just reinstalled Vista over the top and all worked fine.
> > >
> > > Hope that helps
> > >
> > > Steve
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > sgs
> > >