I need some computer help please....?

Question

My boyfriends dad is supposed to be really good with computers so i took mine to him to fix b/c my brothers got on and downloaded a whole bunch of stuff off of limwire without a firewall up...

It originally had Windows XP media center...

When he gave it back to me he said he could not figure out how to put media center back on and put up windows professional....

I have found the product key for my windows media center but i no longer have the disc...

Is there anyway I can take off professional and put media center back on it without paying $100 to get a new media center software kit...?

Answer 1

Media Center Edition was not sold as a retail OS option, the only way to get it was to buy it preinstalled on a system. I recommend you phone your system manufacturer and explain the situation. However, this is rather dicey because your father-in-law wiped Media Center Edition off of your hard disk when he installed Professional. That means the Recovery partition which may have existed on your system is no longer there. However, your system manufacturer may give you a Recovery disk which should reinstall your OS back to factory condition. A Recovery disk is not the original OS image disk, and your father-in-law may have voided your warranty by installing the wrong OS onto your system.

The only way for you to find out is to make that phone call. If you are worried they may not honor your warranty, or respect the fact you are entitled to your Recovery media, don't tell them what your father-in-law did. Just tell them your PC crashed and it will not start. This will avoid them offering to remote into your system and take a look around at what the "issue" may be.

When you request your Recovery disk make sure you do not forget to request your Drivers and Utilities disk if you no longer have it for any reason. You will need that to install your drivers and Utilities, though you can access your Drivers and Downloads page at your manufacturers support website. It is just simpler to first install from that disk and then update any drivers that require updating.

Even father-in-laws who are more technically experienced than we are still may not be what we would consider an expert. I am sure he did the best he could for you. Please try to not be too angry with him. After all, it was a very sweet gesture to help you out at all. But, I am sure you are fully aware of that fact. It truly sounds as though you have a wonderful father-in-law.

I hope this offers some suggestions on how to get your system back as it once was. Good luck and please have a nice day.  

Answer 2

The question that you need to ask is what exactly did you use in Media Center that you need?  Professional is a lot more powerful than MC and you should be thanking him that he put on professional instead of your media center (unless it's an illegal copy).

Find out what programs you used in Media Center and then go download them from Microsoft.

Take care,

Chad

Answer 3

Well honestly coming from the geeky side of things, media center is such a waste of an OS.  It takes up so much random space on a hardrive and honestly you really dont need it.  Professional works fine and you can get most of all your media programs online for free.  As far as downloading limewire, if that happens again just engage your firewall and "allow" your computer to let limewire download.  If all else fails and your really gotta have it fixed, you can call geek squad from best buy (which isnt always the best due to the fact they are AMAZINGLY expensive.  Trust me i worked there.) Or firedog from circuit city.  But its totally up to you if you want to go thru with media center.  All it is a another form of an OS, so if u wanted to make your Windows professional a media center its possible you just gotta get the software for it.

Answer 4

Learn about torrents. Go to utorrent.com and download the software. then go to torrent search sites like isohunt.com and find your self a copy. Since you have a paid product key already, you are using the site for back up purposes and is legal. ;) Torrents are much safer than limewire for viruses and trojans. but always be cautious. Use a virus scan on the file before use, and have one one while installing. BTW, Professional is a way better OS. Media Center=$hitty. Just get the programs that you used and add them to professional.

Answer 5

My guess is is that He used a Illegal copy of Windows XP Pro so it would be very beneficial to get your Windows XP media Centre back the 2 questions I would need to know is what is the make of your computer and model number?  If your computer has  recovery partitition than it shouldnt be to hard unless he has overwritten it if he has overwritten it than the other option is getting your recovery disks from your computers manufacturer.  If you need any assistance with this please send me a yahoo mail and id be glad to help

Hope this helped

Blake c.

PS DO NOT USE TORRENTS DO NOT MAKE ILLIGAL COPIES IT WILL GIVE YOU MORE HASTEL THAN YOU WANT!!!