Windows

Point value changed by question poster.

This is a really bad idea, unless you are trying to hack a system, which is a worse one.

What is the reason that you wish to hide what components are installed on the system?

You can edit the C;\WINNT\inf file "sysoc" to show hidden windows components by removing the HIDE text, remove only the letters leave the comma's.

Example
; old base components
Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,,7
AccessUtil=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,accessor.inf,HIDE,7
CommApps=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,communic.inf,HIDE,7
media_clips=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,mmopt.inf,HIDE,7
MultiM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,multimed.inf,HIDE,7
AccessOpt=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,optional.inf,HIDE,7
Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,HIDE,7
MSWordPad=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wordpad.inf,HIDE,7

Since you can unhide these hidden items in add\remove programs, I would think you could also hide items that appear in add\remove although I've never tried it myself.

I suppose if you make a backup copy of this file you could experiment.

If you edit c:\windows\inf\sysoc.inf, you can hide all the components that show up in Add/Remove Windows Components. For example:

Original Line
TerminalServer=TsOc.dll, HydraOc, TsOc.inf,,2

New Line
TerminalServer=TsOc.dll, HydraOc, TsOc.inf,hide,2