For years, developer Doug Berrett has been toiling away at an application that really should have been developed by Microsoft. WebGuide provides a slew of ways to interact with your Windows Media Center PC on the go, whether you want to remotely schedule recordings or stream recorded TV shows.

Well, it looks like Microsoft noticed Berrett's work, and the company went and hired him. While this is great news for Berrett, it's also good news for you. Because it means that WebGuide is now available as a free download. No more $18 fee to register your software.

Berrett will be working with the Media Center team to push Media Center "into the high-end custom installation market," which means he won't be offering updates to WebGuide anymore. But he did push out one final release yesterday. Updates for Windows Vista and Windows XP MCE 2005 editions include:

• Updated "now playing" screen to not update the progress bar as often in full screen mode
• Fixed login text entry on Xbox 360
• Added auto-redirect to mobile pages for mobile devices

Congratations Doug!

[via Missing Remote]