I have a need to use two PCs side by side each with a single 4k monitor. The PCs are both laptops with their display inactive in windows display settings.
My main goal is to have really good mouse/keyboard roaming between the two PCs. I tried a cheaper solution (a KM switch cable from Amazon) and it did not work at all with my Kinesis Advantage 360 (wired USB) keyboard.
I’m wondering if the KM switch ($220) from Level1Techs will be a good solution and work with these laptops with just my two 4k displays enabled. Is the keyboard/mouse roaming smooth and reliable?
Also, what is the return policy if I have an issue with it?
Looks like I cna’t edit my post …?
For clarity, these are both laptops but they are only displaying on the external 4k monitors (one display per computer). I need to be able to very quickly work on both of these laptops. I cannot use “Synergy” or other software solutions between on one of the laptops I don’t have permissions to install anything. So a KM switch with great mouse/kb roaming would be awesome.
I use a Deskhop for this. I have one keyboard and mouse, and I can drive the mouse seamlessly between the screens with no additional software required on either system. I use it with two monitors in a similar scenario: work PC running windows next to a personal PC running Linux.
I have the KM switch and I am very very happy with it.
My caveats:
- The OS drivers for my Logitech wireless mouse will hang the switch so it needs to be power cycled. This is fine for weeks at a time but a hassle. I ended up switching to a different wired mouse that has been rock solid.
- I have a mutable screen layout and was not willing to choose one true layout, so I use the keystrokes to switch between machines rather than pushing through the screen edge. This is near instantaneous and I don’t feel like seamless mode would be much better. It’s really good. I may eventually add stream deck buttons or something to make it even faster, but it’s not a pain point.
- Having used PiKVM, I thing absolute mouse positioning is mostly perfect, but not === relative positioning for everything. This is the other reason I prefer using keystrokes to switch. There is a trade off there, but there is no perfect solution in this space and probably will never be.
- You said “2 laptops”…my Mac hardware doesn’t like deep USB hub hierarchies. I can totally plug the KM switch directly into the Mac, or maybe one dongle, but chained docks and hubs lead to no detect on the USB HID devices. Another trade off.
In any case, if it looks like it suits you, I recommend the L1 KM. Just know you may need to adapt to it a little bit.
As an aside, I’ve got a machine I can’t install software on too. One of my experiments was hooking it up to my second monitor and a PiKVM, which I put in a full screen browser window on an extended desktop on that side of my main computer (on the second input of the monitor). The seamless mouse movement between them was much better than I expected. There were quirks with that as well, but I could see making that work if I had to.
Thanks for the headsup on the Desktop. I found someone on etsy selling fully assembled ones for $40 including shipping, so I’m going to give that a try!
Thanks for the details here. I’m going to try the “Desktop” device recommended by the previous poster, but if it doesn’t work, I’ll try the L1 KVM next.
LOL I meant to type “DeskHOP” on the last two replies.