Many professions, such as video editing, sound mixing, graphic designing, etc., requires multiple devices to work on simultaneously. In addition, many people use multiple devices for entertainment and work side by side. If you are in such a situation, it might be frustrating for you to switch between devices with different mouse and keyboard for every device.
To overcome such difficulties, many users stack their keyboards on top of each other. However, it is not a feasible solution. Instead of that, you can use much better options that we are going to describe in this post.
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In this post, we would walk through several ways to control two computers with one keyboard and mouse. These will allow you to use your mouse without borders and keyboards to function on multiple devices.
Top ways to Control two Computers with one Keyboard and Mouse
- Microsoft Garage Mouse Without Borders
- Input Director
- Sharemouse – Use Mouse without Borders
- The Hardware Option: KVM Switch
- Use Remote Desktop
Microsoft Garage Mouse Without Borders
Microsoft Garage Mouse without Borders is an excellent application that allows you to share your mouse and keyboards between multiple Windows OS devices. It is developed by a Microsoft developer Truong Do, as an experimental project. The Microsoft Garage Mouse without Borders application is available for Windows OS at Microsoft Store for free. It supports a maximum of four Windows OS devices.
After downloading and installing the application, you can configure it as per your preference. From the dashboard of the Microsoft Garage Mouse without Borders, you can drag and arrange your devices in the same order as they are placed physically from left to right. This would ensure that you can correctly hop your mouse pointer to the adjacent system’s screen.
Generally, Microsoft Garage Mouse without Borders application works well, but it might start to stutter when three or four devices are connected. Still, features such as clipboard sharing allow you to copy and paste between connected devices. You can also drag and drop the items from one device to another without any issue.
Input Director
If you are having trouble using the Microsoft Garage Mouse without Borders for controlling your multiple Windows PCs, you can use its best alternative – Input Director. Although installing and setting up the Input Director is a bit intensive than the Microsoft Garage Mouse without Borders, especially for beginner users.
Input Director comes with a lot of security features that let you determine which computer systems are allowed to join the network. In addition, you can create customized hotkeys for different devices. Drag and drop from one device to another, copy and paste from one device to another, and many more advanced features are available on Input Director. Unlike Microsoft Garage Mouse without Borders, Input Director is not freely available to use for commercial purposes. However, you can use it free for personal use.
Sharemouse – Use Mouse without Borders
Sharemouse is a cross-platform application for using the mouse without borders and keyboards on every device connected. After installing the Sharemouse application on every device, you don’t require to set up the application on every device. Instead, the application would automatically detect all the Sharemouse devices in the network.
Though overall, the Sharemouse is an excellent application for controlling two computers with one keyboard and mouse, sometimes copy & paste and drag & drop between cross platforms can be stuttering and might don’t even happen.
The Hardware Option: KVM Switch
If you are uncomfortable using the software programs to control two computers with one keyboard and mouse, you can use the hardware alternative – KVM Switch. The KVM Switches are not new and used by users for a long time before applications came into existence. The KVM Switch would simply let you switch the mouse and keyboard control to another device with an A/B switch.
Though, before buying a KVM switch, you might require to do extensive research as not all KVM supports every device.
Use Remote Desktop
It might be absurd to use the remote desktop to manage devices placed side by side, but it is one of the most straightforward solutions to control two computers with one keyboard and mouse. If all the devices you want to manage are Windows 10 based, you don’t require any third-party application to control them remotely. Windows 10 comes with a fantastic in-built Remote Desktop application that helps you efficiently manage the devices.
If all the devices do not work on Windows 10, you can go for Chrome Remote Desktop to access multiple computers on your device.
Summing Up
Multitasking with several devices can be tedious, especially when you are using cross-platform devices. With the options listed in this post, you can easily switch between the devices and control two (or more) computers with one keyboard and mouse.
YES, one keyboard or mouse can operate two computers with specially designed software programs or hardware switches.
To use a mouse without borders on several devices, you need special programs such as Mouse Without Borders, Sharemouse, Input Director. Go through this post for more details.
Peter is an Electrical Engineer whose primary interest is tinkering with his computer. He is passionate about Windows 10 Platform and enjoys writing tips and tutorials about it.