Thanks to a post from another guy, I finally found a way to get my remote to cycle through the zoom modes or turn closed captions on or off, by simply pushing one button on the remote.

The software that enables me to do so is called Autohotkey (http://www.autohotkey.com).

I simply use the following macro for the default macro :

#IfWinActive ahk_class eHome Render Window
3::
Send ^+z
return
8::
Send ^+c
return
#IfWinActive


The code above, will map the # button on your remote to Ctrl+Shift+z, which will cycle through the zoom modes.
It will also map the * button on your remote to Ctrl+Shift+c, which will toggle closed captions on or off.
By using the #IfWinActive code I simply check to make sure that the shortcuts are only passed when Media Centre is the active window.

Important : the strange thing is that if I press the # button on the remote from Notepad I do not get the # sign, but the number 8, and for the * button on the remote I get the number 3.
That is on a Belgian keyboard, so if you have a different keyboard (very likely), you might want to check first which keys correspond to the * and # button on the remote.

BTW : I would have preferred to be able to map the 4 small coloured buttons at the bottom of the remote, but these seem to correspond with no key on the regular keyboard, at least pressing them from another application gives no feedback whatsoever.

You can certainly add more functions if you can find any more keys on the remote that you hardly use, and that you know the key of.
Maybe add radio ?

Thanks for this tip -- it's a real timesaver to zoom with a shortcut key.

I tried to identify the colour buttons codes with TweakKey, but they don't seem to generate anything.

I'd also like to know what the i  (information) button transmits when pressed.

I suppose that last one is easy to answer : Ctrl+D

(see : http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/e69eb36f-de61-4e80-8fe3-f3835b8e3e261033.mspx)

which contains a list of all the Vista Mediacenter shortcuts

If you have a Harmony remote, the function is built-in. Just map a button or LCD key to do the Media Center's "Aspect" command.

This whole tip is for people who like the MCE remote, but who miss a couple of features on it.
I for one thing am not going to buy yet another remote, just because a feature is not on it, if I can add it like that.

boulder2:

Important : the strange thing is that if I press the # button on the remote from Notepad I do not get the # sign, but the number 8, and for the * button on the remote I get the number 3.

That's because - on US keyboards - # is shift-3 and * is shift-8.

Andy