Multiple PCs into a single big monitor solution.. Help

Adebisi

Adebisi

Clump of Cells
<Silver Donator>
27,921
30,749
Need help homies. I have four PC's I need to control at my desk. I'd like the solution to be:

One keyboard and mouse for all.

One really big monitor that lets me do picture in picture for all the PCs that aren't currently active with my mouse and keyboard. So I can see their desktops at all times and toggle which gets the focus of the monitor.

Mock-up??

20240320_085652.jpg

What kinda monitor solution am I looking for? Or hardware
 
Rangoth

Rangoth

Blackwing Lair Raider
1,943
2,029
I can’t speak for getting them all on one monitor, but “input director” is awesome for one mouse keyboard controlling multiple machines. Been using it for years.
 
darkmiasma

darkmiasma

Trakanon Raider
969
948
Adebisi said:
Need help homies. I have four PC's I need to control at my desk. I'd like the solution to be:

One keyboard and mouse for all.

One really big monitor that lets me do picture in picture for all the PCs that aren't currently active with my mouse and keyboard. So I can see their desktops at all times and toggle which gets the focus of the monitor.

Mock-up??

View attachment 520662

What kinda monitor solution am I looking for? Or hardware
Click to expand...

LG 43UN700T-B
 
  • 2Like
Reactions: 1 users
Mist

Mist

REEEEeyore
<Rickshaw Potatoes>
31,802
24,488
Adebisi said:
Need help homies. I have four PC's I need to control at my desk. I'd like the solution to be:

One keyboard and mouse for all.

One really big monitor that lets me do picture in picture for all the PCs that aren't currently active with my mouse and keyboard. So I can see their desktops at all times and toggle which gets the focus of the monitor.

Mock-up??

View attachment 520662

What kinda monitor solution am I looking for? Or hardware
Click to expand...
Mouse Without Borders is what you want for controlling multiple computers. This is included in the new Power Toys for Windows or standalone, but the standalone is no longer updated (still works great though.)

For the monitor, the Dell P4317Q did what you want, but it's not something easily acquired these days.

The LG 43UD79-B did this too.

Some TVs can support 2 PIP inputs, but not sure about 4.

Amazon product ASIN B0CPXNQX8Z
This should be able to do what you want, but it might be clumsy.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user
Adebisi

Adebisi

Clump of Cells
<Silver Donator>
27,921
30,749
Is there anything that offers a nice sharp screen and slightly better latency for if I do want to game a lil on there. Not that I play anything but Rimworld
 
Void

Void

BAU BAU
<Gold Donor>
10,095
12,239
I know this isn't exactly what you asked for, and it would take a little time for multiple account setups, but programs like Anydesk and Parsec let you remote desktop in a window, so in theory you could do it on a "lesser" monitor that doesn't need 4 inputs. At home I have had my secondary computer that does stuff like Plex and such logged in via Anydesk for literally the last 5+ years, pretty much 24/7. Except for power outages that exceed the battery backup I haven't physically touched the computer in years. I use Parsec from work and find it better for true "remote" use, but in-network either is going to work just fine. I highly recommend both, although Anydesk has more conveniences like remote printing and copy/paste, etc.

You can also configure the desktops to shrink/grow with the window so if you need to blow one up full-size you can see wtf you are doing.

They are both free for personal use (with some feature limits), but using multiple at the same time would require some creativity unless you want to pay for one of them. Anydesk allows multiple connections if you pay (and Parsec probably does too), but if you're sticking to free you'd need one Anydesk, one Parsec, and something else that I'm not really sure of. TeamViewer used to be the big one but I wouldn't use that these days (if it still exists).

Like I said, not really what you are asking for, but maybe it fits your needs somewhat.
 
Adebisi

Adebisi

Clump of Cells
<Silver Donator>
27,921
30,749
Do those remote window programs require installation on each PC. Two are work PCs and I'm not sure they're cool with software that seems like I'm trying to connect multiple systems to a single output
 
Adebisi

Adebisi

Clump of Cells
<Silver Donator>
27,921
30,749
I'm wondering if two high quality ultra wide stacked on top of eachother running two pbp onto each might be better
 
Void

Void

BAU BAU
<Gold Donor>
10,095
12,239
Adebisi said:
Do those remote window programs require installation on each PC. Two are work PCs and I'm not sure they're cool with software that seems like I'm trying to connect multiple systems to a single output
Click to expand...
Yes, they do. So probably won't be something they want installed on their computers, since you could access them from anywhere and steal corporate sekruts.
 
moonarchia

moonarchia

The Scientific Shitlord
25,383
47,060
Adebisi said:
Do those remote window programs require installation on each PC. Two are work PCs and I'm not sure they're cool with software that seems like I'm trying to connect multiple systems to a single output
Click to expand...
Odd as it may be, but Mist Mist is actually right for once. Mouse Without Borders is all you need for an all Windows setup. It's written by an actual MS dev and hosted on their servers for people to download. Dead simple to use. Once you have it installed on all 4 PCs just log in to the main one first, and as you add PCs you tell it where they are on screen in relation to main, then once it is all installed you can forevermore just log in to main PC. When others are turned on it will automatically sync them up.

Point of caution, mouse sensitivity is weird on secondary PCs sometimes. I have yet to figure that out.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user
Void

Void

BAU BAU
<Gold Donor>
10,095
12,239
Am I retarded, or does Mouse Without Borders require you to have a monitor for every computer? Because that's how it looks on every single video and article I am reading.

I feel like that's the opposite of what Adebisi, and myself, are trying to accomplish. We don't want 4 monitors that are all stacked together and you can use a single mouse on all of them; we want one monitor that has mini-views of the other "monitors" (that don't actually physically exist, or at least are not turned on nor placed in a large array) and can switch focus to the computer we need.
 
Kharzette

Kharzette

Watcher of Overs
5,603
4,586
I'll bet the kronolords of eq live would know the way! Should ask in the everquest live thread in mmo forum.
 
moonarchia

moonarchia

The Scientific Shitlord
25,383
47,060
Void said:
Am I retarded, or does Mouse Without Borders require you to have a monitor for every computer? Because that's how it looks on every single video and article I am reading.

I feel like that's the opposite of what Adebisi, and myself, are trying to accomplish. We don't want 4 monitors that are all stacked together and you can use a single mouse on all of them; we want one monitor that has mini-views of the other "monitors" (that don't actually physically exist, or at least are not turned on nor placed in a large array) and can switch focus to the computer we need.
Click to expand...
I'm not going to say you're retarded, but you are incorrect. Mouse Without Borders is a software based KVM. It doesn't give a fuck whether you have multiple monitors or are just doing PIP/PBP. You set up a virtual grid to determine where each "monitor" is in relation to the others, and moves the KB/mouse focus to the current computer.
 
Edaw

Edaw

Parody
<Gold Donor>
14,386
98,806
Code: 
^!m:: ; Ctrl + Alt + M hotkey
SysGet, MonitorCount, MonitorCount

if (MonitorCount > 1) ; If there are multiple monitors
{
    SysGet, PrimaryMonitor, Monitor, 1 ; Get primary monitor info
    MouseMove, PrimaryMonitorRight//2, PrimaryMonitorBottom//2 ; Move mouse to center of primary monitor
}
else ; If there's only one monitor
{
    SysGet, Monitor, Monitor ; Get monitor info
    MouseMove, MonitorRight//2, MonitorBottom//2 ; Move mouse to center of monitor
}
return

AutoHotkey

Free keyboard macro program. Supports hotkeys for keyboard, mouse, and joystick. Can expand abbreviations as you type them (AutoText).
www.autohotkey.com www.autohotkey.com
 
Mist

Mist

REEEEeyore
<Rickshaw Potatoes>
31,802
24,488
Void said:
Am I retarded, or does Mouse Without Borders require you to have a monitor for every computer? Because that's how it looks on every single video and article I am reading.

I feel like that's the opposite of what Adebisi, and myself, are trying to accomplish. We don't want 4 monitors that are all stacked together and you can use a single mouse on all of them; we want one monitor that has mini-views of the other "monitors" (that don't actually physically exist, or at least are not turned on nor placed in a large array) and can switch focus to the computer we need.
Click to expand...
I think you're confusing outputs with monitors.

4 HDMI outputs from 4 machines going into 1 monitor is still 1 monitor device per computer, so MWB would still work.
 
Void

Void

BAU BAU
<Gold Donor>
10,095
12,239
moonarchia said:
I'm not going to say you're retarded, but you are incorrect. Mouse Without Borders is a software based KVM. It doesn't give a fuck whether you have multiple monitors or are just doing PIP/PBP. You set up a virtual grid to determine where each "monitor" is in relation to the others, and moves the KB/mouse focus to the current computer.
Click to expand...

Mist said:
I think you're confusing outputs with monitors.

4 HDMI outputs from 4 machines going into 1 monitor is still 1 monitor device per computer, so MWB would still work.
Click to expand...
I'm still confused, but I'll give it a try when I have some time. I think my main confusion stems from the fact that literally every video and tutorial shows a monitor for each machine, mostly laptops, and the mouse physically moves from one to another. I'm not saying that's all it does, but I can't find anything detailing exactly what I want.

I have a monitor with two machines plugged into it, but I currently have to change the input to see the other one, and obviously the m/kb don't work when I do, thus my remote desktop setup instead.

Does the monitor require a PiP feature to work, or does it somehow utilize multiple inputs? My monitor might actually have PiP, but I'm not positive as I've never tried to use it.
 
Mist

Mist

REEEEeyore
<Rickshaw Potatoes>
31,802
24,488
Void said:
I'm still confused, but I'll give it a try when I have some time. I think my main confusion stems from the fact that literally every video and tutorial shows a monitor for each machine, mostly laptops, and the mouse physically moves from one to another. I'm not saying that's all it does, but I can't find anything detailing exactly what I want.
Click to expand...
No, for what you want, you still need a monitor that accepts 4 inputs, or an HDMI picture-by-picture combiner that accepts 4 inputs. But you still need MWB to be able to move the mouse and keyboard seamlessly across all 4.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.