Using a Microsoft remote control in Windows

This article applies to remote controls that use the Microsoft eHome device driver. If you are unsure whether your remote is an eHome remote look in the Device Manager under Human Interface Devices and see if there is a device called "Microsoft eHome Infrared Transceiver" or something similar.

The above example is from Windows 7. If the eHome device does not appear you aren't using the eHome driver and you should read no further. For MCE remotes see Using an MCE remote control in Windows and for general notes on remote controllers see Remote Controls.

Introduction

The simplest way to use an eHome remote with XBMC is to configure it to emulate a keyboard. The eHome driver can be configured by modifying the registry (details below). The details are rather involved, but there are various resources you can use that make it all very simple.

EliteGamer360 has written a registry config file and associated keyboard.xml and these are available from http://xbmccustomregis.sourceforge.net/.

jhsrennie has written an add-on to configure MS remotes. To install it run XBMC and go to Settings, Add-ons, Get Add-ons, XBMC.org Add-ons, Program Add-ons and select MCERemote. Once installed, you can open the add-on by selecting Programs from the home page then MCERemote. The addon includes an option to display the instructions.

Default eHome configuration

Any version of Windows from Windows XP onwards will automatically detect and install a Microsoft remote as soon as you connect it. With versions of XBMC from v10.0 Dharma onwards most of the buttons on the Microsoft remote will work immediately. The exceptions I know about are:

• The Info button; sometimes labelled More or just i.
• The volume buttons will control the Windows volume setting not the XBMC volume
• The four coloured buttons (not all MS remotes have these) won't do anything
• With Vista/Windows 7 the Live TV, Recorded TV and Guide buttons will start Windows Media Center. With Windows XP (non-Media Center Edition) these buttons won't do anything
• The Green/Windows button will start Windows Media Center

For most people this will be fine, and in that case you don't need to do anything further. The only reason for continuing with this article is if you want to customise the Microsoft remote to change the actions of any of the buttons or to make the Info and coloured buttons work.

Useful resources

http://xbmcmce.sourceforge.net/ has various utilities to help with tweaking the button mapping. ShowKey will show you what keypresses or AppCommand messages are being sent, and KeyMapEdit is a utility for editing the keyboard.xml file.

The remainder of this article describes the gory details of configuring the Microsoft remote. This probably looks frighteningly complicated to most of us, but very few people need to read further as EliteGamer360's scripts and/or the MCERemote add-on should do everything you need. Only the curious and determined need read further.

How the MS remote works

The Microsoft remote, or more accurately the eHome device driver, keeps the button configuration in the registry value ReportMappingTable in the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
 \SYSTEM
  \CurrentControlSet
   \Services
    \HidIr
     \Remotes
      \745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da

This is a binary array consisting of rows of 7 bytes. Each row defines one button. The seven bytes in the row are:

Byte	Action
0	button number (see below)
1	always 0
2	always 0
3	always 0
4	04 and 01 send keystrokes; 03 sends an IR signal
5	If byte 4 is 0x04:key modifier. If byte 4 is 0x01:low byte of key code
6	If byte 4 is 0x04:key code. If byte 4 is 0x01:high byte of key code

Byte 4 determines what the eHome driver will do when the button is pressed. If byte 4 is set to 0x03 the eHome driver will generate a "Raw Input" message, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms645536(v=vs.85).aspx. The only raw input messages likely to be useful are:

<button>,00,00,00,03,81,00	System Power: will cause Windows to shut down
<button>,00,00,00,03,82,00	System Sleep: will cause Windows to hibernate
<button>,00,00,00,03,83,00	System Wake: will cause Windows to wake from hibernation

Byte 4 can be 01 or 03. These sends IR codes not keystrokes and I'm ignoring these values in this article. I'm only interested in setting byte 4 to "04" to indicate a keystroke.

Byte 5, the key modifier, specifies if control, shift etc are down when the key is sent. The value can be:

Byte	Action
0	No modifier
1	Control
2	Shift
3	Control-Shift
4	Alt
5	Control-Alt
6	Shift-Alt
7	Control-Shift-Alt
8	Windows
9	Control-Windows
a	Shift-Windows
b	Control-Shift-Windows
c	Alt-Windows
d	Control-Alt-Windows
e	Shift-Alt-Windows
f	Control-Shift-Alt-Windows

If you're happy with binary numbers you've probably spotted that bit 0 specifies Control, bit 1 specifies Shift, bit 2 specifies Alt and bit 3 specifies the Windows key.

The keystroke is not an ACSII code or a scan code. It's an arbitrary code selected by MS. You can find a list of the codes in

http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/1/161ba512-40e2-4cc9-843a-923143f3456c/translate.pdf

The button numbers obey no obvious logic. The following table lists all the known button numbers. Thanks to the many people who put effort into discovering these numbers.

Button no.	Button name	Comments
00	0	Standard MS remote
01	1	Standard MS remote
02	2	Standard MS remote
03	3	Standard MS remote
04	4	Standard MS remote
05	5	Standard MS remote
06	6	Standard MS remote
07	7	Standard MS remote
08	8	Standard MS remote
09	9	Standard MS remote
0A	Clear	Standard MS remote
0B	Enter	Standard MS remote
0C	Main Power	Standard MS remote
0D	Windows	Standard MS remote
0E	Mute	Standard MS remote. This button does not work on the 360 universal remote.
0F	Info/More	Standard MS remote
10	Volume Up	Standard MS remote. This button does not work on the 360 universal remote.
11	Volume Down	Standard MS remote. This button does not work on the 360 universal remote.
12	Channel Up	Standard MS remote
13	Channel Down	Standard MS remote
14	Fast Forward	Standard MS remote
15	Rewind	Standard MS remote
16	Play	Standard MS remote
17	Record	Standard MS remote
18	Pause	Standard MS remote
19	Stop	Standard MS remote
1A	Next/Skip	Standard MS remote
1B	Previous/Replay	Standard MS remote
1C	#/Refresh	Labelled with a curved arrow (meaning refresh) on the 360 universal remote.
1D	*/100	Labelled "100" on the 360 universal remote.
1E	Up	Standard MS remote
1F	Down	Standard MS remote
20	Left	Standard MS remote
21	Right	Standard MS remote
22	OK	Standard MS remote
23	Back	Standard MS remote
24	DVD Menu	Standard MS remote
25	Live TV, Red (B)	Red button labelled "B" on the 360 universal remote
26	TV Guide, Yellow (Y)	Yellow button labelled "Y" on the 360 universal remote
27	Zoom/Aspect Ratio	Top left button on the Asrock and Mediagate remotes
28	Open/Close	Only on XBox 360 universal remote
29	Discrete Power On	Present on the Harmony universal remote
2A	Discrete Power Off	Present on the Harmony universal remote
32	Visualisation
33	Slideshow
34	Eject
3B	Close App
46	My TV
47	Music Library	Present on the Asrock remote
48	Recorded TV	Standard MS remote
49	Picture Library	Present on the Asrock remote
4A	Video Library	Present on the Asrock remote
4B	DVD Angle	Present on the Mediagate MG-IR02BK remote
4C	DVD Audio	Present on the Mediagate MG-IR02BK remote
4D	Subtitles	Present on the Mediagate MG-IR02BK remote
4E	Print	Labelled "Print" on the HP remote
4F	Display	Labelled "Display" on the 360 universal remote
50	Radio	Present on the Asrock remote
51	Title	Labelled "Title" on the 360 universal remote
5A	Teletext	On some, but not all, models of the MS remote and many compatibles
5B	Red teletext button	On the v2 Microsoft remote
5C	Green teletext button	On the v2 Microsoft remote
5D	Yellow teletext button	On the v2 Microsoft remote
5E	Blue teletext button	On the v2 Microsoft remote
64	XBox button	Large "X" button on the 360 universal remote
66	Green (A)	Green button labelled "A" on the 360 universal remote
68	Blue (X)	Blue button labelled "X" on the 360 universal remote
6C	Channel Up	Channel up button on the 360 universal remote. Note that the standard MS remote uses number 12 for this button.
6D	Channel Down	Channel down button on the 360 universal remote. Note that the standard MS remote uses number 13 for this button.
6E	Play/Pause	You can configure the button to send VK_MEDIA_PLAY_PAUSE using 6e,00,00,00,01,cd,00