Yeah, the corruption, for lack of better terminalogy, is more than likely caused by one of the critical system updates. It could also be a combination of things too but at this point, I will have to read your info when I have time later on, ok?
Instead of using Windows' own Add-Remove Program applet, I'd suggest you use a 3rd party freeware alternative that often is more powerful.
2 highly recommended ones that will also help you remove the so called 'unremovable' ones from the list:
MyUninstaller or
Revo Uninstaller
Revo does a fine job of scanning for all traces (both in the file system and in the registry) and give you an option to remove any that is finds. Both programs gives you the option to remove invalid uninstal list entries which resides by default at: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Uninstall]
but I'd not recommend messing with this directly in the registry, use one of the two programs mentioned, ok?
Also C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files directory houses all IE plug-ins as well, when you explore to this location, change the 'View' to detailed. If any of them is corrupted or became invalid, the 'Status' column will display that so you can manually (right-click) delete the bad ones before re-installing them.
