I like the idea of added options to the HID property page... I'll take a look into this but it may be a little over my head - so I may have lots of questions.
I'm not too sure if it applies to me... I will want to download and update to the latest stable build, but I want to be sure to add the global key patch (which I have downloaded and understand it's modified source code).
Do I need to compile the sources with the patch code merged?
You should overwrite the code downloaded from SVN with the code in the patch, compile and then in your xbmc\bin\Release folder you'll have the latest binaries with the patch included.
Alternatively wait until a dev merges the patched code, assuming they want to, into SVN and download a nightly build.
If they don't want it I'll try and put together a process plugin that does the same.