
- CONTROL 2 COMPUTERS WITH ONE KEYBOARD AND MOUSE SOFTWARE
- CONTROL 2 COMPUTERS WITH ONE KEYBOARD AND MOUSE BLUETOOTH
- CONTROL 2 COMPUTERS WITH ONE KEYBOARD AND MOUSE PLUS
- CONTROL 2 COMPUTERS WITH ONE KEYBOARD AND MOUSE FREE
If you want wireless, or to use an Apple Magic Trackpad, you're out of luck, there is no way to do that easily.
CONTROL 2 COMPUTERS WITH ONE KEYBOARD AND MOUSE BLUETOOTH
Note that KM switches only work for USB keyboards and mice - I've never heard of a Bluetooth KM switch. Synergy will work once both Macs are booted in to their OSes, but will not give you boot-time access to whichever is the "secondary" device meaning you couldn't log on to it, even. Older "dumb" KVM devices that you have to physically rotate a dial or press physical switches on the device won't, but basically any one sold now will. And nearly all of them continue to present that a keyboard and mouse is present to the 'other' device if it's a somewhat modern electronic switch that supports hotkey switching. (No compensation from Logitech, just a fan of this tech they have - and I hope other manufacturers do similar with their "multi device" keyboards and mice.)Ī keyboard+mouse switch will do what you want for USB keyboard and mouse. And it will wake up the other computer, just as clicking a button on a Bluetooth mouse will wake up the computer it is connected to. With Logitech's system, it actually switches the connection from one computer to the other, so you can shut off the first computer. With Synergy or Teleport, the computer the keyboard/mouse are actually plugged in to (or are wirelessly connected to) has to be on to use them with the other computer - and it can't wake up the other computer.
CONTROL 2 COMPUTERS WITH ONE KEYBOARD AND MOUSE PLUS
If you are in the market for a new keyboard/mouse, I've been happy with the Logitech MX Anywhere 2S, which supports Logitech's "Flow" feature - if you have one of their "Flow" capable mice (the MX Anywhere 2S or a few other mice,) plus a supported Logitech keyboard (a few to choose from, in a few different styles,) it can be set up so that you can just "mouse to the edge of the screen" on one computer and the keyboard and mouse actually switch inputs to the other computer. Work best if they are connected via fast network connection (Ethernet to a Gigabit hub/router.) If you want to use your already-owned keyboard and mouse, Synergy or Teleport are the best options. The 2011 can only act as "target display" for other Thunderbolt Macs, but it can output MiniDisplayPort. The 2009 doesn't have Thunderbolt and can't do anything with a Thunderbolt cable. If you want to do that, you need to use the 2009 iMac as the "target display" and connect the 2011 iMac to it using a miniDisplayPort-to-miniDisplayPort cable - not a Thunderbolt cable.

Yes, it lets you control one mac from the other, but its not what you want if the screens are side-by-side.Ĭonnecting the second mac using "target display mode" - ( ) makes one Mac act as a second display for the other - doesn't actually solve your display switching problem so you might still need Synergy and/or the USB switch. "Screen sharing" would duplicate the screen of one Mac in a window on the screen of the other Mac. I've actually used one of those together with Synergy for those reasons - but I was juggling 3-4 Macs/Linux/PCs and displays so I'd often need to re-configure Synergy or change boot options. (3) You don't, for some reason, want the remote machine to always start the Synergy client on boot.

for alternate startup drives) before Synergy would have a chance to start


(2) You frequently need to use different boot options on the "remote" Mac (e.g.
CONTROL 2 COMPUTERS WITH ONE KEYBOARD AND MOUSE SOFTWARE
(1) Synergy doesn't play nicely with some software you're using - most likely games - or the slightest hint of extra latency gets you shot. The other possibility for doing what you want is something like this:īasically, a KVM switch without the "V" part.
CONTROL 2 COMPUTERS WITH ONE KEYBOARD AND MOUSE FREE
Its about $20, or you can waste more than $20 worth of your time trying to find an old, free version or you can spend $20 on a cable that might not actually do what you want. It just needs a network connection between the two macs - WiFi will do fine. There's also limited cut & paste support. If you want to run two macs side-by-side, each using their own display, and operate them from a single keyboard and mouse, Synergy is exactly the tool for the job: just move the mouse off the side of one computer's screen and it pops up on the other one, and the keyboard input automatically follows it.
