Synergy – A virtual KVM

If you find yourself always turning from one screen to another on your desk and moving from one keyboard to another then you`ll want Synergy.  It’s like a KVM switch only difference is that it’s software (as opposed to all those cables) and free. The downside is that it doesn`t use just one display, it needs one connected to each computer using Synergy. If you need to switch control from one computer to another all you have to do is move the mouse cursor outside the edge of the screen.

Setting it up takes under 5 mintues and it’s fairly easy. A pretty good tutorial on setting it up can be found here. You don`t necessarily need to use the hostname when connecting, it also works if you use the computer IP.

The control is really good. I saw no performance difference between using my laptop’s keyboard & mouse  and my desktop computer’s keyboard & mouse….except while trying to play Portal (haven`t tried other games). Inside the game the keyboard control was good but the mouse was really really sensitive. Probably there is a workaround for this but as I don`t need Synergy for playing games, I haven`t looked for one.