I have a HTPC which runs 24/7 and is connected to the TV via HDMI. Within my pc I have an MCE receiver, and I use a Logitech Harmony remote programmed with MCE commands. At a basic level the MCE remote is a bit like a keyboard. By that I mean digit '1' is number '1' on the keyboard, if you had notepad open and it had focus, pressing 1 on the remote would type 1 in notepad.
To get this working I installed EventGhost (http://www.eventghost.org) and setup 'keyboard' as an input. I then created a macro called 'on' using the 'Start Application' module. The application to start is obviously lifxcl.exe. I then added an event which is the keyboard press for '1'.
Now every time 1 is pressed eventghost runs the macro.
As I said its a bit dirty, i.e. if I was writing this email on the HTPC my lights would have been going on and off like crazy, but I only use the HTPC for watching TV and I don't use the number digit pad at all so this works for me.
I know from past experience eventghost can pick up custom ir codes, so if you wanted to you could separate the MCE codes and use another remote \ set of commands.
Sounds like I need to buy a remote
