The Pronto is completely free of Microsoft code. I suggest you try the HK/Madrigal remote to see Microsoft's idea of software appropriate for a remote control :-)

There's a tiny embedded OS called pSOS in Pronto, but all the interesting code was written by the development team at the Philips Multimedia Center in Palo Alto.

And believe it or not, there are virtually no simularities under the covers between Nino and Pronto. If you want to do something well, you have to design something focussed on doing that thing right from the start.