Ryan Tollefson over at The Green Button has created my new
favorite application for Media Center. MCE Virtual Remote
uses Charile Kindel’s MCE
Controller to create a virtual software remote that you can use for basic
controller of your Media Center.
If you are like me, and always have a laptop (or a tablet)
in front of your face while sitting on the couch this is must have software. I always seem to lose my actual remotes, and
this is the best backup I can have.
Another great use, and while Ryan developed it is to use it with a UMPC.
Ryan released it last night, and after playing with it I
suggested that he add a minimize to tray feature for the Virtual Remote so that
you could always have it running on the PC.
Apparently Ryan also liked the idea and updated the program an hour or
so later with the feature.
Give it a try, free download and very useful. While you are trying that out, you also might
want to take a look at Ryan’s Group Policy for Windows Vista to replace Explorer.exe
with Media Center.
var dc_UnitID = 14;
var dc_PublisherID = 11967;
var dc_AdLinkColor = ‘6699cc’;
var dc_adprod=’ADL’;
Funny; once, when desperate and too sick to get up off the couch to look for a remote, I used VNC to my MCE box to do the same thing. The local refresh was horrible over the wifi network, but the real point was controlling it, not watching it on the laptop.