After uninstalling Y! Messenger all the programs in add/remove prog. list change to older list, what happened?

I recently installed messenger, but after that I had to remove other components of it, namely forgetting to not add yahoo! toolbar. After uninstalling toolbar, the list of programs in add or remove programs disappeared for a second and came back with a set of programs that i mostly don't have anymore. More than that, I don't have a list of what is currently on my computer. Thus can not uninstall other programs. Using register xp on dell computer.