I was looking at my configuration to see if anything has changed. It appears that the last Vista update has made changes to my services. I would do as MadJim suggests and visit
http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm and make some changes to see if you can alleviate the issues. All of my Media Center services were back on, and I know for sure that I didn't turn them back on. I would also suggest a registry cleaner. I use a paid one, but have had good luck in the past with
http://www.ccleaner.com/ in the past. I am sure that you can get this back to tip-top shape in no time.