Still in need of Dell branded Media Center Edition 2005.. 536
Even if you bought a legitimate MS full copy of WinXP, free support would only last 30 days. A window pun intended while you get Winwhatever set up. After that 30 days, the only support available from MS is fee-based $29.00 per incident the only time I had to call MS-Dell {disremember which it was}, with the tech authorized to waive the charge if it resulted from a bug in Windows, etc. Mine was user stupidity, so I didn't even ask for a waiver.
The days of free support from major software publishers are long gone.
Perhaps if you presented your story to a computer magazine they might be able to help. Almost every issue has a story of how the author was able to...
Mind wandering back to yesteryear and the DOS days, when WordPerfect Corp offered free 800 number support with no questions asked on where-how you got your copy of WordPerfect. -- OJ III Email to Yahoo address may be burned before reading. Lower and crunch the sig and you'll net me at comcast.