Comments on: Reader question: Two laptops, one desk

By: Rob Wilkerson

Rob Wilkerson — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:34:11 +0000

For the sake of anyone breathlessly following this thread to its conclusion, I ended up solving my problem by acquiring an additional docking station from the folks at the office who control such things.

The docking station sits on my server rack – entirely out of my way – and now when I’m home I just place my laptop on the docking station (with the lid closed) and use Remote Desktop Connection to access that machine from my mac. Works well since the laptop’s display resolution is an intolerable 1024×768.

So now my second laptop isn’t on my desk at all and is no longer a source of clutter. Thanks again to all who offered solutions.

By: steph

steph — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 13:31:14 +0000

In case your going for the two laptops – one screen, many dell monitors have 4 different video inputs, including VGA and DVI. This way you can connect the PC to the VGA and the mac to the DVI and easily switch between them, without the need of an external video device.

By: Rob Wilkerson

Rob Wilkerson — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 21:13:46 +0000

Thanks for all of the advise, folks. Here are some things I should have specified:

1. One laptop is a Windows laptop that belongs to the office. The other is my personal Mac. I already run Parallels on the Mac, but for legal/liability reasons, I need to keep work stuff on the work machine.

2. I actually prefer the laptop screen because of it’s tiny footprint. My desk faces the door and I can’t stand having a big ol’ monitor in front of my face blocking my view of the door. That makes a KVM solution useless (I’m not familiar with Synergy – yet).

3. When I’m using one laptop, I think I’d like to close the other and have it set aside entirely. That said, if remoting in from my home machine to my work machine is reasonably performant, then maybe that’s a reasonable solution.

Thanks again to everyone.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 06:32:26 +0000

You could eliminate the Windows device by loading Windows in Parallels. Another solution is to have the Windows laptop running but closed and out of site and connect to it with some of the tools already mentioned (remote desktop, VNC, or my personal favorite Cord)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 02:09:37 +0000

Geez. I get annoyed with one computer. I find USB thumb drives solve all the problems of multiple computer needs.

By: The Shopping Sherpa

The Shopping Sherpa — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 23:43:29 +0000

IKEA Hacker has some interesting laptop solutions which might help: http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/2007/06/need-laptop-desk-diy-your-own-stand.html

By: Sam Clifford

Sam Clifford — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 23:39:01 +0000

If you can afford the desk real estate, Synergy is worth using. You don’t have to buy any software or a KVM switch and monitor and it’s cross-platform.

It also gives you a shared clipboard if I remember correctly.

By: Kirk Roberts

Kirk Roberts — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 20:57:57 +0000

If you opt for the KVM solution (which is deliciously low-tech) be forewarned that the switch recommended in the article has VGA connectors (pretty sure about this, as it looks just like one I had). As far as I know, you’ll need a DVI connector for your MacBook Pro. Make sure to check what connectors your machines and the KVM switch have before you buy!

For what it’s worth, I’m going to be so glad to finally get a MBP and use Parallels… having a Windows machine just for testing websites practically defines “clutter.”

By: Erik Ordway

Erik Ordway — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 20:38:18 +0000

Extract the pc laptop as a VM image and use it in VMware Fusion. Use the pc laptop to hold up the corner of the table.

By: Carrie

Carrie — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 20:17:38 +0000

Just have to comment, your amazon.com leaderboard on the left is showing me ads for nursing bras. On an uncluttering blog.

I think Big Brother is here.

But I am glad to have found your blog. I despise clutter too.

By: raisin

raisin — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:55:11 +0000

I have the same situation going on, and the best thing I found is a Dell D/Port replicator. Drop the latitude on the replicator and access it from a kvm or your choice of remote desktop. The beauty is that you can put the port replicator and the latitude anywhere within reason. I put mine on a shelf under my desk and access it from my linux machine via vnc.

By: Char

Char — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:08:33 +0000

Parallels on your Mac will also allow you to run Windows programs, and has the advantage that you don’t have to reboot to use it as you do with Boot Camp.

By: tom

tom — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 15:56:51 +0000

At work, my desktop is Linux. I use terminal services & RDP to connect to my XP Pro laptop. Works great.

At home, I have a Linux laptop. In the basement I have a Mac and a linux box running VMware server. I use VNC to get into the mac. It even goes through the login. I have XP Pro running inside VMware server on the linux box. I RDP into that. VNC doesn’t let you get to the login screen in XP Home.

RDP is nice because you get cut&paste. You should be able to redirect sound as well. A KVM won’t let you cut & paste.

How about VMware Fusion, Parallels or something similar on the Macintosh?

By: nVIR

nVIR — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 15:29:51 +0000

Try the software “Synergy”, using one mouse and one keyboard for both computers, across the network. I’ve used it for years now, and wouldn’t change it for anything else!

By: max

max — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 15:00:30 +0000

I agree with the other comments that a laptop stand (or two) will help with ergonomics. While a KVM will enable use of a single keyboard and mouse, it still requires a switching action (push a button, hit a keystroke) to move back and forth.

I would recommend looking into Synergy. I use a similar, Mac only solution for my setup: Teleport.

My wireless mouse & keyboard are connected to my iMac on my home desk. When I plug in my MacBook (on laptop stand with external monitor) next to it, I’m able to move the mouse cursor over to the laptop screen and now I’m in control of the MacBook. Move the cursor back to the iMac, I’m controlling it.

Then I bring the laptop to the office, drop on the desk next to the MacPro monitor and do the same thing there!

In addition, I find that Teleport sends _all_ keyboard commands to the active host (unlike VNC solutions). So Expose, Quicksilver, etc. all work seamlessly, regardless of which system I’m controlling.

Hope this helps.