Microsoft Remote Keyboard for Windows XP Media Center Edition Review

Turning Couch Potatoes Into Typists

One of the much-talked-about features of the much-delayed Windows Vista (nee "Longhorn") is its new look and feel -- a translucent 3D interface, rumor has it, so gorgeous that you'll need a 256MB PCI Express graphics card just to load Notepad.

Most of the people who buzz about Vista, however, forget that Microsoft has already engineered a strikingly eye- and user-friendly alternative to the familiar Windows XP interface: the remote-controlled menus of Win XP Media Center Edition (MCE).

Sometimes called a "ten-foot interface" for the distance between a couch and TV set, as opposed to the two-foot gap between a PC user and monitor, Media Center is an elegant way to navigate and enjoy your digital music, image, and video collection; audio CDs and DVDs; and TV program guide with personal video recording and browsing through albums, series, movies, actors, genres, you name it.

On the other hand, a Media Center PC is still a PC. What if, while sitting on the sofa, you suddenly want to surf the Web, check and send e-mails and instant messages, or open your Outlook schedule or a Word document, none of which you can do with the MCE remote?

You need a keyboard and mouse. And, while it's simple enough to buy one of Microsoft's or Logitech's wireless desk sets, that leaves you with two USB receivers -- one for the mouse and keyboard, the other for the infrared MCE remote -- plugged into the PC, and three devices cluttering your coffee table.

To the rescue comes the Microsoft Remote Keyboard for Windows XP Media Center Edition. In addition to following Marketing Rule 101 -- Give Your Product a Catchy Nine-Word, 61-Character Name -- this $105 peripheral combines keyboard, mouse, and remote control into a slim and light (1.5 pounds) lap accessory that promises to work up to 30 feet away from the MCE infrared receiver. (Intruding walls kept us from using it more than about 20 feet from our Media Center PC, but we were impressed with how, though an infrared instead of radio-frequency device, it didn't need to be aimed or aligned directly with the receiver.)

The Remote Keyboard uses four AA alkaline batteries (included). It works with Media Center Edition 2005 with no special drivers or control software required, although you need to install the Update Rollup 1 patch for the eHome receiver -- a 527K download from Microsoft's site. While it can't turn the PC on and off, it can put it into and awaken it from sleep or standby mode, and like many remotes can "learn" from your TV's remote how to turn the set on and off.

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