My home media center setup seems to become more complicated by the week. The latest usability issue I’m looking to iron out is to automatically unlock my desktop to stream content to the laptop that is connected to the TV in our living room. Sure, I could walk the 30 ft to the office, unlock it as needed, and go on watching TV. But sometimes there isn’t sufficient time to mentally prepare for a journey of that magnitude. So, I did some digging, and came across a nifty little program known as Multiplicity.
Originally developed by Stardock (most people know them for Fences, the make-your-Windows-desktop-look-like-a-Mac application), Multiplicity is a software that allows you to use one keyboard and mouse to control multiple computers. You install the application on each computer that you want to control, then set the one that is plugged into your mouse/keyboard as your primary computer. Then, in the app, you arrange computer locations, and move your mouse cursor far left or far right to switch between the different computers.
This may not seem practical at first consideration, but if you have multiple computers, this effectively allows you to set them up like a single, multi-screen computer. Installing it on your work desktop and laptop would let you use the laptop as an additional screen for the desktop. My use case involves two computers that are far away from one another, but I know which side of the screen I need to move the mouse to briefly control the other computer while I unlock it. It’s also a potential solution for scenarios that require large amounts of processing power and numbers of monitors at a single workstation, both of which cause prices to go up exponentially as you add more.
Keep in mind that while Multiplicity is a paid solution, there are plenty of similar freeware options on the market (a lot of which I actually found on Multiplicity’s wiki page). Multiplicity is the only one I’ve tested, but I’m sure there are at least some that would work for many of the scenarios above. Give them all a shot and see which one works the best for you!