My girlfriend’s laptop had some viruses, and I removed most of them using some tools and tips I got off the internet. (The laptop had three-year-old virus definitions.). Windows 2000 has been corrupted: the cryptographic services are missing.

I’ve tried to reinstall Windows 2000 from the recovery CD, and it doesn’t work! I’ve tried to "repair this version of windows" and also to start with a clean install. I still get the same problems after each install: cryptographic services are missing from the Services under Administrative Tools. This prevents me from reinstalling MS Office or the software for the wireless card (which have both been corrupted as well). I’ve tried renaming the directory %systemroot%system32Catroot2, re-registering the DLLs associated with cryptography, renaming the EDB.LOG file and every other solution I’ve found on the web.

Is it worth it to pay 0 for XP OEM and try installing that, or is that $ better spent on a computer tech?