Stone Studio

This article talks about how to control multiple Windows systems using the keyboard/mouse attached to one computer. It is designed for folks who have two (or more) computers set up at home and find themselves regularly sliding from one system to the other (and wearing out the carpet in the process!). Simply put, you will need to download and use either Synergy or Input Director.

With Input Director, you can share a single keyboard/mouse across a set of systems. You switch which system receives the input either by hotkey or by moving the cursor so that it transitions from one screen to the other (in a very similar fashion to a multi-monitor setup). The idea being that you can position the monitors from two or more systems in a row and use a shared keyboard/mouse to control all of them.

Input Director requires Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4), Windows XP (Service Pack 2), Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 2008 or Windows 7. The systems must be networked.

Download Input Director

Input Director is licensed for personal non-commercial use only.

Download Input Director v1.2.2

Have a look at the installation guide to see how easy it is to install and setup Input Director

Download and Install Synergy

Synergy can be used on nearly all platforms. Binary packages are available for Windows, Mac and other Unix-like operating systems, but installation and configuration is far easier on Windows systems.

Installation instructions can be found here.

Conclusions

I used Synergy about two year ago and it worked great. I was using it for side-by-side Windows and Linux machines. But it hasn’t been updated in over 2 years. If you’ve got Windows systems, I will recommend you try Input Director, it has all Synergy can do and even easier to configure.