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Microsoft Garage / Mouse Without Borders

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I guess that is cool if you have a laptop and desktop where you do two things at once. I personally have three different computers, and I cannot think of a time I would use this. The only time I do two things at once is when I do stuff with my HTPC. Yet I simply snap one to one side of the screen and one to the other side. 1/2 of my tv is still much larger than a laptop.

As for transferring files, I don't see how that is any easier than grabbing it off my network.

If I wanted multiple monitors, I can already do that from 1 computer. No need for an extra computer.

Interesting, but I personally don't have a use for it.
 
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I have two PCs on my desk at work, each with its own dedicated mouse, keyboard, and monitor. I prefer having the extra dedicated monitor dumping 'tail -f /var/log/maillog' fullscreen from our primary mailserver, and with browser windows open for Nagios and MRTG 24/7.

I'm not running a KVM for any other extra machines, and I'm not doing multiple displays on any of the PCs. I also have my own laptop which I bring into work on occassion (when I want a portable SSH terminal or need a serial port to do work in any of the wiring closets). What this does is allow me to pick any of the three mouse/keyboard sets at my desk, and control all of the computers at once. It can even copy and paste out of a doc on one computer over to another, and drag and drop files between them -- no mapping drives or writing SMB \\HOST\C$ type notation in Explorer. I can even CTL+ALT+DEL to login into every computer simultaneously, or lock them all together when I leave for lunch.

Very elegant, and very simple to setup. There is a third party app which does this already named Synergy, but the UI sucks and it's buggy as heck. This is a simple MS developed PowerToy.

Now I know why Great Plains/Dynamics is a P.O.S. Because the guy on the team that actually knows his ass from a hole in the ground has been tinkering with this nifty little PowerToy.

This utility does not allow you to span monitors with a single app, like a hardware based multi-display would. It just 'lets you drive' up to four PCs with any mouse/keyboard pair connected to any one of the PCs. Each still needs its own monitor.

As someone that has inadvertantly grabbed the wrong keyboard off my desk and rebooted a router or a firewall by accident, this will save me a lot of grief. I can hide my other keyboards from myself. :tongue2:
 
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Good deal. I will have to give this a shot at work. I typically use my desktop at work with dual monitors for work and then my laptop that I bring for FB/Twitter/Music/BP. Now I don't have to deal with an extra mouse and the laptop keyboard.
 
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Dryden;1995293; said:
Got two desktop PCs side-by-side? One PC and a laptop? Two PCs and two laptops?

Download this. Holy crap, it is awesome! :banger:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/next/arc...ft-garage-download-mouse-without-borders.aspx
Click to expand...
I've used Input Director for years at work... ID already has one keyboard/mouse for up to 4 (or 8) computers, clipboard copying from one to another and simultaneous lock. Very handy for having documentation on one screen while working on the other and not having to use two of each input device. This looks very similar but adds file drag-and-drop and simultaneous login. Those two features alone are enough to get me to try it, especially the file drag-and-drop. Good find!
 
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I wish there were more options such as letting you setup hotkey's for switching the keyboard over to another device. Control + F1-4/1-4 was kind of a pain. At home I can just use my mouse buttons and hotkey them to said commands but at work I just have a cheap laser mouse.
 
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I'm working on two computers today and was just thinking how very useful this program has proven. It is so much easier to use my awesome mouse (Naga FTW) and wireless keyboard for multiple computers than to keep switching. Thanks to Dryden for pointing it out!

In case anyone new does want to use this, it's easy to miss one important setting. By default, the mouse moves seamlessly between computers, and the keyboard controls whichever one the mouse is on. "Disable easy mouse" locks you to one screen until you use the command to switch, and is better for running full-screen apps or if you snap screens to the edges often.
 
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Just saw this pop up...

I was using this but I have switched to Synergy. I had too many problems trying to use Mouse With Borders with my laptop while connected to VPN for work. My office setup is a desk with my laptop with two 24inch monitors, desktop with 24inch monitor, and then 46inch LED TV with an HTPC connected to it. My laptop is generally connected to VPN 24/7 and RDC'd to my desktop at work and one of various servers. When connected to VPN it would think the laptop was connected to a different network from my LAN and drop the laptops connection to MWB. I don't have this issue with Synergy so I have decided to use it instead and it's pretty much the exact same thing.

But to Deety's point - yes this makes my life 100x easier only using one mouse/keyboard to control 4 displays spanning across 3 PCs.
 
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