Windows Media Centre computers tend to ship with either an OEM manufacturer’s remote control or a Microsoft-branded one. These OEM manufactured machines all come with the associated drivers to support the remote control.
There are numerous Open Source home theatre PC projects in existence that have a similar media centre-style interface and playback capabilities to Windows Media Centre and Windows Vista Home Premium/Ultimate. The advantage of open source is that you can use the product freely without the need to pay the associated price tag that you do with Microsoft products. My favourite open source Home Theatre PC software is called MediaPortal.
Applications such as MediaPortal are smart enough to work effectively with the Windows Media Center remote control, among many other brands. However, you must have a supported driver installed on your Windows OS in order for it to be recognised for use as a remote control device.
For Windows XP if you are running Windows XP Professional SP2 or later then the drivers are automatically included with the OS. The story is slightly different with Windows XP Home. Windows XP Home (any service pack level) does not come with any drivers for the Windows Media Center remote. If you plug it in you will be presented with a request for drivers for the “eHome Infrared Receiver” it will be detected as.
I have located and tested the following drivers on Windows XP Home SP2 and they function as required.
Installation
Briefly, the steps required to install the driver (one method) are:
1. Download the driver package below
2. Create a directory somewhere on your computer, and extract the archive contents to it
3. Plug in the Windows Media Center Remote control
4. When prompted for the driver, select the option to specify a location and point to where you extracted the archive to.
The driver should then install and you should be working 100%.
Microsoft Windows Media Center Remote Control Drivers for Windows XP
[Mirror 1] – Hosted on NZTechie.com
[Mirror 2] – Hosted on Windows SkyDrive
[Mirror 3] – Hosted on Mediafire
RELATED LINKS
MediaPortal – free MediaCenter HTPC Software
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/
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