Media Center Problem in Vista Since last update

I'm running Windows Vista Home Premium on an HP Pavilion DV2225nr Laptop. It
has suddenly started running the media center Application when I close some
programs. It is easy enough to close, but it is getting really annoying. It
started doing this after the last windows updates were installed. The list of
Programs that will trigger this to start up are: Lord of the Rings Online, HP
QuickPlay, Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe Elements 3, Win DVD, or Windows Media
Player. I have gone into the task manager and ended the process tree for it.
I have also gone into MSCONFIG.EXE and stopped it from starting up with the
computer and turned off the services associated with it. I would at this
point be happy to just uninstall Media Center all Together. It is not in the
Programs and Features list accessed through control panel, nor is it a
Windows Feature I can turn off. I did a Search and found it in
c:\windows\ehome but it is a protected system file and says it’s in use.

Any help or suggestions would be very helpful.