[kin3tics]

I accidently deleted NTUSER.DAT files on my xp media center. Now media center won't work, I can't change my background, et cetera How do I fix this?

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If you have not rebooted since this started happening, do so now and tap the F8 key aobut the time when Windows starts to reload. Then chose Last Known Good Configuration.

This is a backup copy of your registry, but it makes only one on every reboot. NTUSER.dat is a registry database file for every user account that exists on your computer which allows you to customize settings such as your desktop appearance and your home page in Internet Explorer differently than from other accounts. The second time you reboot, the backup copy of NTUSER.dat will be overwritten by the new backup where that file doesn't exist. At least that is my understanding of why Last Known rarely helps--people have rebooted several times before trying this method.

So if it doesn't work, run System Restore and restore to a date prior to the problem. That is a backup of most of your registry as well.

[Papakid]

If you have not rebooted since this started happening, do so now and tap the F8 key aobut the time when Windows starts to reload. Then chose Last Known Good Configuration.

This is a backup copy of your registry, but it makes only one on every reboot. NTUSER.dat is a registry database file for every user account that exists on your computer which allows you to customize settings such as your desktop appearance and your home page in Internet Explorer differently than from other accounts. The second time you reboot, the backup copy of NTUSER.dat will be overwritten by the new backup where that file doesn't exist. At least that is my understanding of why Last Known rarely helps--people have rebooted several times before trying this method.

So if it doesn't work, run System Restore and restore to a date prior to the problem. That is a backup of most of your registry as well.