Please tell me how to kill Windows Media Center

[cdp103188]

Ok, I am about to pull all of my hair out of my head....

Windows Media Center REFUSES TO GO AWAY!!!

Media center just decides to pop up whenever it feels like it, almost always when I turn on my laptop or bring it out of sleep, and not just once, multiple times, maybe up to 10 times.

Not only will it do it when I turn the laptop on, but even periodically throughout the work day - seems to be completely random. So I Googled the issue (several times) and found a few solutions that are not working for me.

I went into Defender and removed Media Center from the Startup Programs, then I went to Services and disabled the following:

-Windows Media Center Extender Service
-Windows Media Center Receiver Service
-Windows Media Center Scheduler Service
-Windows Media Service Launcher

Still, Media Center turns itself on whenever it pleases!!!

So then I went into regedit.exe and navigated to the following:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft

Once here I added a new key called:

WindowsMediaCenter

and within this new key I added a new DWORD (32-bit) Value named:

MediaCenter

at this point I double clicked my new DWORD and changed the "Value data:" to "1" instead of "0" - now when Media Center tries to run I just get a warning message that says this:

"Windows cannot open this program because it has been preventer by a software restriction policy. For more information contact your system administrator"

This is better, but now whenever Media Center tries to start itself I will get that pop-up maybe up to 20 times, and this morning when I turned my laptop on, I got it no less than 45 times!

Can someone please tell me how to end this hell?!

A little bit of background information:

-Laptop is a Gateway M-Series (M-6824)
-I use extended desktop with a Dell E156FP monitor
-Running dual boot with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium and Kubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron)

Can't think of anything else you might need to know, if I left anything out, just ask.

Oh, also, I might mention, Media Center didn't used to do this when I bought the laptop - I am almost to the point of doing a total (destructive) system restore.