windows firewall wont start after windows xp re-installation !

after re-installing windows xp home using my infinity p.c recovery disk i
received the warning"windows firewall is turned off",and when i tried to
enable it i was informed i couldnt since the service was not running
this seemed odd since i had only just finished re-installing windows
xp,so i downloaded the 90 day free trial of "windows live one-care" which
gave me a excellent firewall however i would still like to know why my
firewall had stopped working and how to fix this issue
i have been trying to work out a reason for this problem,one reason
could be the actual recovery disk as when i have used a nornal xp disk this
problem dosent occur,which makes me think since the recovery disk was
designed for my p.c when i originally bought it and since then i have added
much more memory,soundcard,graphics card ,case and also 4 x 80mm fans and 2 x
cold cathod ray tubes that when the recovery disk is installing its seeing a
different p.c to the original so its throwing these errors up
what would you do?
a)continue with one care live and forget windows firewall
b)apply the registry fix thats avalible online
c)re-install windows using my windows xp home disk(full)..not recovery!
also i am seriously considering mandriva linux...any views ?
cheers guys

is the machine fully patched at windows update? is automatic updates
enabled and working?

brianthesnail wrote:
> after re-installing windows xp home using my infinity p.c recovery disk i
> received the warning"windows firewall is turned off",and when i tried to
> enable it i was informed i couldnt since the service was not running
> this seemed odd since i had only just finished re-installing windows
> xp,so i downloaded the 90 day free trial of "windows live one-care" which
> gave me a excellent firewall however i would still like to know why my
> firewall had stopped working and how to fix this issue
> i have been trying to work out a reason for this problem,one reason
> could be the actual recovery disk as when i have used a nornal xp disk
> this
> problem dosent occur,which makes me think since the recovery disk was
> designed for my p.c when i originally bought it and since then i have
> added
> much more memory,soundcard,graphics card ,case and also 4 x 80mm fans and
> 2
> x cold cathod ray tubes that when the recovery disk is installing its
> seeing a different p.c to the original so its throwing these errors up
> what would you do?
> a)continue with one care live and forget windows firewall
> b)apply the registry fix thats avalible online
> c)re-install windows using my windows xp home disk(full)..not recovery!
> also i am seriously considering mandriva linux...any views ?
> cheers guys