2 PCs 1 Keyboard

almoststew1990 · 4 Feb 2016 at 19:24

It's not as erotic as it sounds!

Is there such a thing as a USB 'merger'? If a 'splitter' is something that allows you to connect multiple devices to one usb port, is there something that allows one device to be connected to multiple PCs? Duplicating the signal?

I have two PCs (one 'retro' XP PC and my normal one) and It would be good to not have to keep swapping the USB reciever between PCs if they could just share one usb 'cradle' that was plugged into both PCs. As they'd probably not be turned on at the same time.

yashiro · 4 Feb 2016 at 19:34

'usb kvm switch' is what you need to search for.

IanAG · 4 Feb 2016 at 21:17

I have used a 'Cerulian 4 Port USB 2.0 Switching hub' for a few years which works very well. Occasional glitch which seems to be resolved by unplugging from the PC and plugging back in. Used with various versions of Windows and OS X successfully.

Confused Stu · 5 Feb 2016 at 00:28

If you want to press a switch and the keyboard, mouse and monitor changes from one PC to the other, you need a KVM Switch. Just make sure you get the right combination of USB/PS2 and DVI/VGA for your setup.

If each PC is attached a separate monitor and they're on the same network, and you simply want to use the single keyboard and mouse to control both, then you want Input Director: http://www.inputdirector.com/
You install it on both PCs (latest beta works fine), set the one with the keyboard and mouse plugged in as Master, set the other PC as Slave, then set them both to run at bootup. Now just moving the mouse off one screen onto the other will allow you to change which PC you're controlling without moving a single cable.