Share A Keyboard And Mouse Between Two Computers

Method 1: Input Director

Input Director is a windows-exclusive program that allows you to control more than one computer without using more than one keyboard and mouse. With input director, you simply control both computers with the keyboard and mouse, and press a certain hotkey to change which computer you would like to control.



You can either use the hotkey method, or just move the cursor off the screen, and it will appear on the other computer, allowing you to use the keyboard for that one instead.


My favorite feature about input director, is the ‘clipboard’ feature. This feature allows you to copy something from one computer, and paste it on another computer. It’s very handy. Also, please note that the only systems that currently support Input Director are Windows 2000 (SP4), Windows XP (SP2) or Windows Vista. And may I please remind you that, the computers you wish to control simultaneously must be networked.

To download Input Director, go here:

Method 2: Synergy

Synergy is very similar to Input Director, but is just as good. A nice little feature about Synergy is that it can control computers, even if they are different operating systems, which is really helpful if (like a lot of people) you have an XP and Vista. To change the computer you wish to control, just move the mouse off the screen, it’s as simple as that.

Synergy also supports the ‘Clipboard’ feature. My favorite feature of Synergy, though, is the fact it automatically synchronizes the screen savers of the computer’s it is controlling, so they start and stop at the same time. And, in addition to that, it can password-unlock all the computers with one password, so no need to go around unlocking all of the computers if they automatically lock.



To download Synergy, go here:

http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

The way both Synergy and Input Director work are the same, and it’s a very simple concept - It’s basically remote controlling a computer, without the real time screen appearing. Both software have their basis around a slave and master system, so only one computer is actually being controlled by a keyboard and mouse, but that computer almost mimics the actions onto the other computer, as if the ‘master’ is controlling the ’slave’.

The only problem I’ve found with the two programs, is sometimes the lack of compatibility, as Input Director does not support mac, or all that many Operating Systems really. Synergy supports a few more, but it’s still a hassle changing your computer’s operating systems to get this to work.

And feel free to share your review.

Remove unused device drivers from Windows XP machines

When you install a device driver on a Windows XP machine, the operating system loads that driver each time the computer boots regardless of whether the device is present—unless you specifically uninstall the driver. This means that drivers from devices that you have long since removed from your system may be wasting valuable system resources.

Follow these steps to view and remove these unnecessary device drivers:

1. Press Windows + Break to bring up the System Properties dialog box.
2. Select the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.
3. Click the New button below the System Variables panel.


4. In the New System Variable dialog box, type devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices in the Variable Name
text box and 1 in the Variable Value text box.



5. Click OK to return to the System Properties dialog box and then click OK again.
6. Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.
7. In Device Manager, go to View | Show Hidden Devices.



8. Expand the various branches in the device tree and look for the washed out icons, which indicate unused device drivers.
9. To remove an unused device driver, right-click the icon and select Uninstall.

PC Slows When Accessed over the Network

Although heavy network traffic can bog down a PC, it may indeed be nothing more than a hardware problem. Specifically, your network adapter may conflict with another hardware device in your system.

If you're using a desktop PC, shut down Windows, unplug the power cable, and crack open the case. Locate your network adapter the card into which you plug your network cable remove the screw, pull out the card, and pop it into a different slot. Reassemble and turn on your PC and see if the problem goes away.

If, on the other hand, your NIC is integrated on the motherboard, it probably shares an IRQ with one of the PCI slots, and thus the PCI card in that slot may be causing the problem. Remove all nonessential PCI cards from your system, and start up Windows. If the problem persists, you may have to shuffle the remaining, essential PCI cards until you resolve the problem. If, on the other hand, the problem vanishes after you remove the PCI cards, shut down your PC and reinsert the cards one by one, reassembling and restarting your system after each insertion, until you find the culprit. If the culprit is a troublesome PCI slot, cover it with a piece of masking tape to remind yourself to keep it unoccupied.
If you're still stuck, you may need to update your network drivers or even replace your network hardware.

Find Missing Remote Printers

The traditional way to use a printer installed and shared on another PC is to open the Printers and Faxes control panel and then click Add Printer. On the "Local or Network Printer" page, choose "A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer," and on the next page, choose "Browse for a printer." Unfortunately, a variety of problems can cause the printer to be absent from this screen.

First, make sure the PC to which the printer is connected is turned on, the network is working for all PCs involved, and the printer is indeed shared. On the remote PC (the one with the printer), open the Printers and Faxes control panel. Right-click the printer you'd like to share, select
Properties, and then choose the Sharing tab. Select the "Share this printer" option, and then click OK.

If the printer is shared, and you're sure its driver supports network sharing, there's a quick workaround that usually works (although it won't solve the underlying problem, whatever that might be). Open Windows Explorer on a PC not directly connected to the printer, and click the My
Network Places folder. Open Entire Network , then Microsoft Windows Network , then your workgroup (e.g., MSHOME ), and then the PC to which the printer is attached. Inside, you'll find a Printers and Faxes folder, and inside that, you'll see all the printers shared on that PC. Right-click the printer you want to use, and select Connect.

If all goes well, the printer will show up in the Printers and Faxes dialog in 10 - 20 seconds, and you should be able to print to it immediately thereafter.


Note: Note that some printers can't be shared (this problem may come up if the manufacturer sells a more expensive "network-ready" printer that they'd rather have you buy). Review your printer's documentation and check the manufacturer's web site for driver updates if you can't get sharing to work. Typically, printers suffering from this limitation do show up in the "Browse for a printer" list but display an error when you try to install the drivers or print remotely .

Remove Old Drivers After Upgrading to New Hardware

If you are experiencing weird issues after upgrading your hardware, or you’ve just upgraded to the latest hardware device and aren’t seeing the performance you’d like, you might want to remove the old drivers which are still installed for the old hardware, even though you can’t normally see them in device manager.

What you have to do is set a less-known flag to allow you to see non-present devices, and then launch device manager. You’ll then see the old devices in the list, and can uninstall the drivers for them.

In Windows Vista, the first thing you’ll need to do is open a command prompt in administrator mode. Type cmd into the start menu search box, and then use Ctrl+Shift+Enter to open in administrator mode. (You can also right-click on the command prompt and choose Run as Administrator)
Now paste in the following line:

SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1

Then type in devmgmt.msc to start up Device Manager from the administrator command prompt:

Once you are in Device Manager, go to the View menu and choose Show Hidden Devices, which will show all the device drivers including things that aren’t currently installed in your computer.

Notice how I have 6 mice in the list, even though I only have two installed (and my drawing tablet). The other 3 mice are old mice that I’ve used until they died…. the Geek tends to wear through input devices very quickly since he never leaves the computer…

You can right-click on the driver and then choose Uninstall from the menu to remove the drivers for that old hardware.

I’ve found that this can resolve a lot of weird issues, and even increase performance on some machines where you’ve upgraded a ton of times. This isn’t necessarily going to increase performance, but it’s nice to have a tidy computer nonetheless.