# How to control one PC from another PC using one KB, mouse, monitor etc.



## Jaybee

How do you control/see/access your other (slave) PCs using only one master keyboard/mouse/monitor etc. 

Planning to get a new PC rig in the next few months. Mine is 7+ now, still going strong and vastly upgraded from stock but it's time for semi-retirement and some more processing power. I've only ever had one PC to do everything but as this musical VI journey unfolds I want to dedicate the new rig to purely music production and leave rarely used but still essential programs I'll still need from time to time on the old rig. 

New rig will be Win10 and the old Win 7. I've only got space here for the main monitor, mouse, KB so I can't have the old PC set up as normal with an independent keyboard, mouse and monitor. 

_Ideally_ the old PC will be switched on as needed and then *somehow* the new PC will start to control it. The question is, how? Internet searches seem to reveal two solutions: A KVM switch (looks a bit 1990s and mentions 'VGA ' :o) or some form of 'remote access' but this too looks sketchy with lots of 3rd party programs flying around claiming to work and I can't get my head round how it would all work out in practice. 

Here's my _ideal _scenario. Is this achievable? What would I need? 


New PC is connected to old via direct Ethernet link between the two (hard coded IP?) 
Old PC will boot _without_ any Keyboard, mouse, monitor being attached. 
New PC can magically switch to seeing old PC desktop and access it's programs and files etc as if it were being natively controlled. (n.b. old PC doesn't necessarily need internet access, I'd just want to use certain programs and files which could be saved onto new PC if needed (via direct Ethernet link)). 

I see lots of talk about PC slaves and multiple PC setups on VI so I guess there's a solution somehow but when you've never done anything like this it all seems a bit daunting! 

Grateful for any ideas.


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## Pablocrespo

I use remote access with my win10 machine to control my win7 machine everyday without a single problem, it shows you a window in your master rig where you can control the other one. You can even surf the web on the other rig!


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## Marcin M

I believe windows OS have inbuilt tool called "Remote Desktop", where you can log in through window to another computer if you are in the same network and if you know it's IP and password.


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## dog1978

Teamviewer - for free


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## Jaybee

I've heard/seen Remote Access and Remote Desktop maybe it's that simple  Not heard of Teamviewer though looks good, thanks. 



Pablocrespo said:


> I use remote access with my win10 machine to control my win7 machine everyday without a single problem, it shows you a window in your master rig where you can control the other one. You can even surf the web on the other rig!



Pablo, is your Win7 machine connected to a monitor, keyboard, mouse etc? Unless things have changed since I last tried Windows won't boot unless there's a keyboard and mouse discovered. How do you get round that? Was hoping to have the Win 7 machine in the corner connected only to a power plug and ethernet to the Win 10 machine.


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## jacobthestupendous

KVM switch?


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## Jaybee

jacobthestupendous said:


> KVM switch?



I get the impression KVM switches were a thing in the early 2000's. Most I've seen only support VGA monitors etc.


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## Rob Elliott

Windows remote desktop - been using for 5 years with ZERO problems. Wish I could say that about other things in the studio.  Love not having another radiating screen in front of me baking my brain cell.


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## chillbot

KVM boxes do exist for any kind of connection you have (usb, dvi, display port, etc). However it's a lot of unnecessary cabling. Just run an ethernet cable and use remote desktop it couldn't be easier. You can even copy-and-paste text and small files between screens.

I keep a cheap $50 monitor in my machine room and a $10 keyboard for setup, but basically never touch them:



When I power down the computers via remote desktop I do NOT need a keyboard connected to power them back up. (You have to power off manually with alt+F4, it won't be available in the start menu.) However, for 2 of the 6 computers I keep in there, when they get powered off another way such as a power outage, I need to then connect a physical keyboard in order for them to boot. There might be a setting somewhere for this, not sure... it doesn't happen very often. Anyway, see the $10 keyboard above as a cheap failsafe.


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## Jaybee

Rob Elliott said:


> Windows remote desktop - been using for 5 years with ZERO problems. Wish I could say that about other things in the studio.  Love not having another radiating screen in front of me baking my brain cell.



Great to hear, the less cables the better. Already looks like a wiring loom manufacturing plant in here... 



chillbot said:


> KVM boxes do exist for any kind of connection you have (usb, dvi, display port, etc). However it's a lot of unnecessary cabling. Just run an ethernet cable and use remote desktop it couldn't be easier. You can even copy-and-paste text and small files between screens.
> 
> I keep a cheap $50 monitor in my machine room and a $10 keyboard for setup, but basically never touch them:
> 
> [When I power down the computers via remote desktop I do NOT need a keyboard connected to power them back up. (You have to power off manually with alt+F4, it won't be available in the start menu.) However, for 2 of the 6 computers I keep in there, when they get powered off another way such as a power outage, I need to then connect a physical keyboard in order for them to boot. There might be a setting somewhere for this, not sure... it doesn't happen very often. Anyway, see the $10 keyboard above as a cheap failsafe.



I was hoping a single Ethernet cable between the two rigs would work so that sounds great. I guess I could simply stash a $10 kb on top of the PC for emergencies or keep it handy for the same purpose if there's an outage. I've got a feeling I might be able to bypass the need for a keyboard to be present in the BIOS. I'll explore that avenue. 

Overall, great to hear other having good experiences with Remote Desktop. Just need a simple reliable solution and that sounds like it's just the ticket. Thanks everyone for your thoughts and experiences.


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## chillbot

Jaybee said:


> I've got a feeling I might be able to bypass the need for a keyboard to be present in the BIOS.


In my experience, most motherboards, but not all, will have a bios setting for this.

When the power suddenly went out a while back I noticed the bios and date reset on these machines so that may have caused it. But I'm too lazy to get into the bios because that would involve going in and physically connecting a monitor and keyboard. The only drawback of remote desktop.


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## Jaybee

chillbot said:


> In my experience, most motherboards, but not all, will have a bios setting for this.
> 
> When the power suddenly went out a while back I noticed the bios and date reset on these machines so that may have caused it. But I'm too lazy to get into the bios because that would involve going in and physically connecting a monitor and keyboard. The only drawback of remote desktop.



Mine has a custom o/c profile and if there's a power outage it'll sometimes 'forget' the o/c profile (and a couple of other boot sequence things I turn off to enable a faster boot) until I boot back into the BIOS and re-enable it. Might see if I can pick up a really small monitor for emergencies. Best solution might be to run a UPS to foil any sudden power outage!


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## chillbot

Jaybee said:


> Best solution might be to run a UPS to foil any sudden power outage!


I have a UPS that buys me about 5 minutes to shut everything down. Works great if you're actually in the studio. When the power goes out and you're not at home.... oops.


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## Jaybee

chillbot said:


> I have a UPS that buys me about 5 minutes to shut everything down. Works great if you're actually in the studio. When the power goes out and you're not at home.... oops.



 I think there are some 'smart' UPS units out there that will auto-shutdown the PCs if you're there or not (allegedly) though a quick Google returns more hits on "why didn't my UPS shut down the PC?" than actual threads about auto-shutdown UPS units available.. whoops. I guess that tech is still work in progress....


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## dathyr1

With the Remote Desktop feature/app, I would need Windows 10 Professional, Correct?
Will it connect to a Windows 7 machine?
I only have Windows 10 home on two of my computers and a Windows 7 machine.

just curious.


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## chillbot

I use a Win10 Pro machine to connect to 6 Win7 Pro machines, if that helps. (Used to also connect to 2 WinXP machines before I got rid of my gigas.) Not sure about Win10 Home but there's a lot on it if you search:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...pability/9551bfa6-c365-4101-954c-7d561dd64087

https://ctrl.blog/entry/how-to-rdpwrapper-win10-home


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## TintoL

Jaybee said:


> How do you control/see/access your other (slave) PCs using only one master keyboard/mouse/monitor etc.
> 
> Planning to get a new PC rig in the next few months. Mine is 7+ now, still going strong and vastly upgraded from stock but it's time for semi-retirement and some more processing power. I've only ever had one PC to do everything but as this musical VI journey unfolds I want to dedicate the new rig to purely music production and leave rarely used but still essential programs I'll still need from time to time on the old rig.
> 
> New rig will be Win10 and the old Win 7. I've only got space here for the main monitor, mouse, KB so I can't have the old PC set up as normal with an independent keyboard, mouse and monitor.
> 
> _Ideally_ the old PC will be switched on as needed and then *somehow* the new PC will start to control it. The question is, how? Internet searches seem to reveal two solutions: A KVM switch (looks a bit 1990s and mentions 'VGA ' :o) or some form of 'remote access' but this too looks sketchy with lots of 3rd party programs flying around claiming to work and I can't get my head round how it would all work out in practice.
> 
> Here's my _ideal _scenario. Is this achievable? What would I need?
> 
> 
> New PC is connected to old via direct Ethernet link between the two (hard coded IP?)
> Old PC will boot _without_ any Keyboard, mouse, monitor being attached.
> New PC can magically switch to seeing old PC desktop and access it's programs and files etc as if it were being natively controlled. (n.b. old PC doesn't necessarily need internet access, I'd just want to use certain programs and files which could be saved onto new PC if needed (via direct Ethernet link)).
> 
> I see lots of talk about PC slaves and multiple PC setups on VI so I guess there's a solution somehow but when you've never done anything like this it all seems a bit daunting!
> 
> Grateful for any ideas.




I have tried a ton of options for this. I can tell you that it depends on how many monitors you are using and which windows you are using, and it also depends on which Daw software you are using.

There are 3 options:

1- KVM hardware switch. It's not a good idea for using one mouse and one keyboard because you are always switching with a button. That is not flexible enough.

2- Another options is using a software that shares your keyboard and mouse when passing from one monitor to another one. All this works using an ethernet cable. This is extensively used in IT. The most known options for software are:* Synergy and ShareMouse. *
Both are really good. I have both and I think share mouse is more robust and stable. For this to work you install the same software in your main computer and in your slave. You have one monitor connected to one computer and another to the slave one. When you move your mouse from one monitor to the other monitor the software switches immediately from one computer to the other one, thus making your keyboard also switch to the other. So, it's a live connection. It's very flexible. It's so stable, that you can copy a file or directory on one monitor and paste in the other and it will transfer the file from one to the other. But it can be unstable sometimes. It's specially unstable in win7 because of the resolution limitation.

If you are using multiple monitors rather than only two, sometimes the monitor order gets messed up and you get lost until you put it back to how it should be. Also, If you are using cubase, the floating window thing can be a problem again because of the limitation of resolution thus, turning off air support on the desktop. When this happens, cubase will not load. And sometimes the monitor order for sharing the keyboard gets messed up again. Now, it rarelly happens, and it's very stable. AS LONG AS YOU ARE USING ONLY 2 OR MAX 3 MONITORS.

3- The third option is remote desktop. This is what I use now, mainly, because if I want to use one computer with 2 monitors, then, I don't have to be switching the input of the monitor connected to the slave.

I hope that helps.


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## Jaybee

TintoL said:


> I have tried a ton of options for this. I can tell you that it depends on how many monitors you are using and which windows you are using, and it also depends on which Daw software you are using.
> 
> There are 3 options:
> 
> 1- KVM hardware switch. It's not a good idea for using one mouse and one keyboard because you are always switching with a button. That is not flexible enough.
> 
> 2- Another options is using a software that shares your keyboard and mouse when passing from one monitor to another one. All this works using an ethernet cable. This is extensively used in IT. The most known options for software are:* Synergy and ShareMouse. *
> Both are really good. I have both and I think share mouse is more robust and stable. For this to work you install the same software in your main computer and in your slave. You have one monitor connected to one computer and another to the slave one. When you move your mouse from one monitor to the other monitor the software switches immediately from one computer to the other one, thus making your keyboard also switch to the other. So, it's a live connection. It's very flexible. It's so stable, that you can copy a file or directory on one monitor and paste in the other and it will transfer the file from one to the other. But it can be unstable sometimes. It's specially unstable in win7 because of the resolution limitation.
> 
> If you are using multiple monitors rather than only two, sometimes the monitor order gets messed up and you get lost until you put it back to how it should be. Also, If you are using cubase, the floating window thing can be a problem again because of the limitation of resolution thus, turning off air support on the desktop. When this happens, cubase will not load. And sometimes the monitor order for sharing the keyboard gets messed up again. Now, it rarelly happens, and it's very stable. AS LONG AS YOU ARE USING ONLY 2 OR MAX 3 MONITORS.
> 
> 3- The third option is remote desktop. This is what I use now, mainly, because if I want to use one computer with 2 monitors, then, I don't have to be switching the input of the monitor connected to the slave.
> 
> I hope that helps.



Thanks for the comprehensive suggestions! At the moment I'm on a single large monitor and I'm using Reaper so hopefully a simple Remote Desktop scenario should work. I'm thinking that the remote pc will only be booted up as and when I need to access various programs and files. I might eventually go with a slave 'on all the time' option but hoping to build in a lot of capacity within the new machine so initially it's just getting it accessible. It's not something I've ever had to do before so this thread has been extremely helpful. Thanks to all.


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## TintoL

Jaybee said:


> Thanks for the comprehensive suggestions! At the moment I'm on a single large monitor and I'm using Reaper so hopefully a simple Remote Desktop scenario should work. I'm thinking that the remote pc will only be booted up as and when I need to access various programs and files. I might eventually go with a slave 'on all the time' option but hoping to build in a lot of capacity within the new machine so initially it's just getting it accessible. It's not something I've ever had to do before so this thread has been extremely helpful. Thanks to all.


No problem. I've had a lot of help here too. I am just paying back.

I also think a simple remote desktop is enough. Just remember to use the ip adress of the slave rather than connecting with the computer name when filling the info. It will save you a lot of time.

I am also waiting to switch to a large 32 or 40 inch monitor. A 4k monitor is not a good idea on a 27 inch monitor.

Cheers.


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## Jeremy Spencer

I use a PC (Win7) > Mac connection with Remote Desktop (but should work fine with PC>PC). It's free, very simple, and reliable. I connect straight across with a cat5 cable (30'), and only bring up the screen when I want to modify something in VEPro on the slave.

The only thing this can't do is turn on the remote PC. I keep the remote PC (slave) in the basement, so I simply go down and turn it on at the beginning of a session. No keyboard or mouse required, but it's a good idea to have one connected just in case.


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## fidelitas88

Synergy has been working wonders for me. I have one mouse/keyboard that links my main Mac Pro machine, Slave Mac Pro and slave pc. I also have the synergy app set to automatically open when I turn on and login to each computer


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## stonzthro

+100 for Synergy - oaks very well here and is cross platform.


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## Piano Pete

Synergy, especially with Synergy 2, is hard to beat.


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## RCsound

PC Only? Input Director, Free.


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## Synetos

+1 Totally agree on Synergy. With a monitor dedicated to each computer, it is like having one giant computer. Map a few shared drives for moving data around, and it is even more like using one computer. I have run a Macbook, and two Windows 10 machines using this tool. It is super, once you get it setup!
https://symless.com/synergy


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