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Looking for advice on monitors, and sharing them (and keyboards/mice) among a PC & a Mac.
Iâll shortly be starting an assignment where Iâll be using my MacBook for work instead of my trusty Windows 7 machine (a dock station laptop w/external monitor/keyboard/mouse). And so Iâm figuring out how to best set up my desk for a minimal amount of clutter (two complete monitor/keyboard/mouse/computer setups take a lot of space), but also enable simultaneous use.
That is, while I work on the MacBook, I think Iâll want to simultaneously keep my Windows 7 machine going for email (so I can still have email pop up automatically as it comes in) and general web surfing.
I believe my options are:
1. KVM switch â easy, but Iâd have to constantly switch to look and see if any email came in and then switch back to work, so not a âsimultaneousâ solution.
2. Application, such as Synergy (http://lifehacker.com/254648/how-to-control-multiple-computers-with-a-single-keyboard-and-mouse), that manages multiple computers in a networked fashion, but seems youâd still need multiple monitors. (But then again, I did just say that I want to see things on both systems in real-time, so no way around that.) The good thing is that one can copy/paste between computers, which would be very useful for extricating things from email (on the Win7 machine) and using them on the MacBook (my authoring machine for this project).
And dovetailing to this is... Iâll likely spring for a fabulous new giant monitor. (Iâve got 1600x1200 res now, and Iâd want to keep at least 1200 vertical and go widescreen, which means WUXGA, 1920x1200; or as long as Iâm dreaming, why not WQHD, 2560x1440.) But can you use pretty much any monitor w/both a MacBook and a PC?
Any suggestions?
-Monique
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