I owned an Xbox 360 that came with a wireless controller. When my Xbox RRODed I got one of those receiver thingys for the PC and it works fine. I don't remember whether it came with a special kind of software or whether I just had to install a driver. Whatever I had to do, it worked without much of a fuss. I basically plugged the receiver in, installed the software (or just the driver) and I was able to use the controller... Could be different if you're using a wired controller (even though I'm not sure why it would)...
Now, I just have the receiver thing plugged in all the time and just turn on the controller whenever I need it (which isn't often if I'm not in the process of heavily playing a game that's better with a controller). It takes about two seconds until the controller is recognized and I can play. The only time there is a problem is, when I start the game first and then turn on the controller, but that's probably down to the game checking for controllers at the beginning and not finding one when it hasn't been switched on...
