Media Center has overtaken my laptop. I have an HP HDX16 running win 7 Home Premium 64 bit upgraded from Vista. Last week every downloaded .exe file was intercepted by Media Center. I started this by trying to download a program from HTC to assist in getting photos from my Droid Incredible 2 to my PC.
Now, every program I try to start opens Windows Media Center instead. I have been able to operate with workarounds, e.g. open links in email messages to my preferred browser, Firefox, open Thunderbird (my email client) through a shortcut I put on my desktop, open Quicken via a file update, etc. But I want to stop the Media Center intrusions.
I did a backup to my external HD about 2 weeks ago but cannot get to a bootable situation. I'm sure that my last backup predates my problem. I have saved my current files and folders to DVD and want to restore my OS to a prior version. I would even be willing to go back to Vista since I still have the Vista to Win 7 upgrade discs. But every method of RESTORE I have tried results in failure. I cannot download helpers since any .exe file cannot be executed. I've done the f8 and f10 protocols without success. I am resigned to buying a new Win7 64 bit OS and reinstalling my programs and files after a cleaning of my HD.
Do I have any other options?
Now, every program I try to start opens Windows Media Center instead. I have been able to operate with workarounds, e.g. open links in email messages to my preferred browser, Firefox, open Thunderbird (my email client) through a shortcut I put on my desktop, open Quicken via a file update, etc. But I want to stop the Media Center intrusions.
I did a backup to my external HD about 2 weeks ago but cannot get to a bootable situation. I'm sure that my last backup predates my problem. I have saved my current files and folders to DVD and want to restore my OS to a prior version. I would even be willing to go back to Vista since I still have the Vista to Win 7 upgrade discs. But every method of RESTORE I have tried results in failure. I cannot download helpers since any .exe file cannot be executed. I've done the f8 and f10 protocols without success. I am resigned to buying a new Win7 64 bit OS and reinstalling my programs and files after a cleaning of my HD.
Do I have any other options?