Using a Microsoft remote control in Windows

If you are using Windows then the official Microsoft MCE remote is very easy to use with XBMC because it can be configured to send any keystrokes you want. The only decision you have to make is whether you want it to remain compatible with Windows Media Center. If you do not need compatibility with Windows Media Center then you can configure it to send the standard XBMC keypresses like P for Play and X for Stop and it will work with any version of XBMC; even old ones. If you do need compatibility with XBMC you can configure the remote to send the standard MCE keyboard shortcuts. In that case you need an updated version of XBMC and a custom keyboard.xml as discussed in the article Using a remote control with XBMC. There is a suitable keyboard.xml <a href="keyboard.xml">here</a> with key mappings for the standard Media Center keyboard shortcuts.

Start by downloading <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/xbmcmce/files/mceremote.zip/download">mceremote.zip</a>. This contains detailed instructions for configuring the Microsoft remote, and some .reg files that you can just double-click to apply a suitable configuration.

There are various remotes around that claim to be fully MS compatible and have the same registry keys as the MS remote. The config files in mceremote.zip should work with these remotes, but I have had occasional reports of remotes that stop working after applying the .reg files. It would be worth creating a restore point before meddling with the registry. Then if the remote stops working you can go back to that restore point.

If you end up having to hand edit keyboard.xml see the article <a href="non_ms_remote.html">Using non-MS remotes with XBMC</a> where I go into great detail on ther process.