I could use some advice. I think this is more FQ than IMHO, but I’m flexible. . .
I’ve got an old Win 10 desktop computer (“Ol’ Gurdy” who’s been mentioned here before), that is still functional and I"d like to keep using alongside a new Win 11 I’m gonna purchase soon. Real estate at the home office is limited, but I hear I can use both computers (not simultaneously) through one monitor, one keyboard, and one mouse through a “KVM Switch.”
Looking online it looks like KVMs are pretty straightforward. . . Just plug both machines into the ports on the back of the switch, connect peripherals & monitors, and switch away! This seems a little too easy.
Do any other Dopers use a similar setup or KVM switch? And advice or pitfalls to avoid? Is there a better setup or method to keep “Ol’ Gurdy” alive and kicking alongside a blazin’ new machine?
If you are not using them simultaneously, a switch will certainly work. Otherwise, you can, e.g. keep two monitors side by side, one hooked up to each machine, and use a single keyboard and mouse for both of them (install Deskflow or similar)
You might need shorter-than-normal HDMI/DVI cables to keep the overall signal length short enough. My older monitor worked just fine with the doubled-up cables when routed through the KVM switch, but my newer monitor which is also a smart TV refused to work through it.
I share a monitor (but not the keyboard or mouse) between two laptops. One connects via HDMI and the other via DisplayPort. So I just need to change the input on the monitor and switch which keyboard and mouse I’m using. It’s a little awkward but it works for me.
A gotcha with modern computers, although more with laptops than desktops, is that the computer isn’t good with wires.
Make sure the PC you buy has the right kinds of connectors to attach a keyboard, a mouse, and a monitor via old-fashioned wires.
Even better if the kind of connector on the computer and on your KVM and on your peripherals all match up with standard cables, so you’re not inserting adaptors between them. Whether it’s something semi-simple like USB-A to USB-C or something more complex like DVI to HDMI, every additional layer of gizmo is more ways for incompatibility and unreliability to raise its ugly head.
Example: My previous laptop had a USB-A socket that worked great with a particular peripheral hardware item I needed to interface with. Which peripheral had a USB-C socket. So an ordinary USB-A male to USB-C male cable worked fine and everybody played nice together.
Then I got a newer version of the same laptop. The USB-A socket was gone and now a USB-C socket was there instead. And a USB-C male to USB-C male cable would not work with my peripheral; my computer didn’t see the peripheral and the peripheral didn’t see the computer.
The fix was to buy a male USB-C to female USB-A adaptor to plug into the laptop. Then plug the existing USB-A male to USB-C male cable into the adaptor and the peripheral. That worked. Gaaah!!!
In your case with one KVM, two PCs, and three peripherals, you’re talking 9 signal paths. Good luck!
I’ve used KVM switches for years. They are pretty straightforward.
Just be careful of how they switch. Some have remote switches, so it’s easy to find a place to put the switch. Some have a button on the unit that you have to press, which limits where you can place it. Some have keyboard combinations that will make them switch, and sometimes these key combinations interfere with key functions that I actually use in some programs.
KVM switches come in a bizillion different varieties, so make sure you get the one for the types of devices you have. Are both of your computers HDMI with USB keyboards and mice?
Another option is to enable remote desktop on the Windows 10 computer and just remote into it from the Windows 11 machine. The advantage is that there’s no additional hardware required. The disadvantage is potential screen lag if you are doing something that is graphically intensive or if your network is busy or slow. It also opens some potential security holes in your system. And of course it requires both computers to be on at the same time.
I have been using KVMs for more than a decade. They generally work very well once you find the right one. You want to avoid the cheapest ones as the may not emulate the mouse/keyboard correctly to the inactive computer and cause it to freeze. The other thing to consider is the screen resolution and the cable types it supports.
At the start of the pandemic, I connected the HDMI video for my home and work computers through a switch from Best Buy. It’s worked fine ever since. I switch my wireless keyboard and mouse by moving the little USB thing between the two.
I used one with three PCs, my game PC, another to cruise the web and one to remote into work. It worked very well if I remembered which way to throw the switch.
Yeah, if your KVM has audio outputs, that would work. There are also many audio switchers without video or other inputs.
Or if they’re just the standard 3.5mm TRS speaker cables, you can use a headphone splitter in reverse to connect two computers to the same speakers. Think you can do something similar with RCA too.
If it’s digital, it’ll be more complicated and you’ll need special devices.
I used to use KVM switches back when screens and other peripherals were more expensive and hardware took up more desktop space. I occasionally ran into some equipment that balked and refused to work after the transfer switch was pressed. Since the unpredictability was unsettling, I haven’t used them since. So beware, and test!
Pro tip: Whether you use a KVM or Windows’ Remote Desktop feature, set the desktop screen background on your two computers to something different.
It’s amazing the destruction you can wreak by thinking you’re entering commands or moving files around on Computer A when it’s really happening on Computer B. Doing an A → B file transfer when you think you’re doing a B → A file transfer is even more fun.
KVMs are a solid solution, but not perfect. They become obsolete as connection standards evolve. The 4 computer versions aren’t cheap. My old monitor likes to go to sleep when there’s no signal so switching between computers often involves a little fiddling (in my setup, the computers hook directly up to the monitor, so I guess I’m using a KM switch).
The situation is very workable for my needs, even with an unrelated and as yet unaddressed bug in my copy of Linux Mint which causes its screen resolution to jump around.
I read this article when I designed my current setup last year:
One Redditer opines that the input lag with cheaper switches is noticeable but not too bad, and I tend to concur, though I’ve owned mine for less than a year:
I routinely remote desktop into more than one system at work, and each system is running multiple virtual machines. The only way I can keep my sanity is to have different backgrounds on every VM and host machine.
