Have I uninstalled progs or haven't I?

I've got a friends notebook computer which he hasn't used for about 4 years and he wants me to get it to connect to the internet on friends' wifis and also a Vodafone dongle. When I looked at it I noticed that there were a great number of unused progs and I attempted to uninstal them. However I now find that they still appear in the list in 'Add or Remove Programs' but if I try to open them I get a message saying it's not possible. Also, if I rightclick on the icon a small window appears saying that Windows installer is preparing to get to work (I think the installer is the same as the uninstaller). How can I get rid of all traces of these programs? Clearly they haven't been properly uninstalled.

No it's not XP, its W7 - sorry should have said. I went to Control Panel/Programs and Features/ and selected the Prog and right clicked, then left clicked uninstall. Windows Installer then stared in a window and I let it get on with it. Not a single one of the progs I tried to uninstall have been.

I just can't remember!

Right. I'm uninstalling Jump Flip. The final window says it's been uninstalled. And I have to say that it no longer appears in the list of progs. Now I'm trying Nero Info Tool. Windows Installer window comes up saying it's 'Preparing to Remove'. (But it shouldn't be there anyway). The circling circle is circling away. I suspect it will continue like that until the end of time or until I hit 'cancel'.

Amazing!! The Nero went without a fight!
But eBay seems stuck. I'm getting an error 1001 message and the uninstaller rolls back to where it was.