TVSquad

Windows Media Center makes it easy to access your movies, pictures, and audio from the comfort of your couch via a remote control. But sometimes you want to use the PC in the living room to do a few things that you normally do in the office like read RSS feeds or even chat with friends. That's where plugins like Media Control come in.

The Media Control Plugin for Windows Vista Media Center was originally designed to add ffdshow support for playing media encoded with codecs that Windows doesn't necessarily like. But the latest version of the software also adds Windows Live Messenger integration.

You'll need to do some registry editing in order to enable Live Messenger to show up in Windows Media center, as s well as configuring the addin. But in the end you'll get to chat with your friends while watching Godzilla movies on a Sunday afternoon without lifting your butt from your couch. You know, assuming you've got a wireless keyboard for your media center PC.

[via Chris Lanier]