Technology Notebook

Windows 2000::Windows File Protection::Automation

Eeeeeviiiil Solitaire
My highest priority today is I must create an invisible automatic "thing" to remove the games from all user machines. In simpler days I would have written a BAT file to remove the EXE files and the menu items. However when you do it that way, SOL.EXE, WINMINE.EXE, FREECELL.EXE mysteriously come back.
This is because Windows File Protection maintains control over the WINNT\SYSTEM32 directory. Since SOL.EXE is such a vital part of the Windows 2000 Professional operating system it was placed in this directory to ensure it is never deleted or overwritten with a different version.
WFP maintains it's "master" copy of these files in C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DLLCACHE (which BTW is cleverly flagged as hidden.) If my BAT removes SOL.EXE from that directory first and then from SYSTEM32 then the file doesn't come back, but a warning message comes up during it's execution about something diabolical happening to your system files and prompting for the Windows CD.
A commandline such as: RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\games.inf,FreecellUninstall does not run silently and doesn't appear to work either (even though it tells me it's removing files.)
There must be some way to execute the uninstall by whatever method the control panel-add remove programs applet does it.
Any ideas? E-Mail Me PLEEEESE.
Of course if I find an elegant solution I'll put it out here.