StarTech.com 2 Port USB Keyboard Mouse Switch Cable w/ File Transfer for PC and Mac® - USB File Transfer Cable - Dual Port USB KM Switch (SVKMS2) Black

Pretty pleased with this - it's the only way I've been able to share my mouse & keyboard between the VPN locked down work laptop and my home system (both Win 10). The cursor does get "stuck" or "trapped" on one screen or the other at times, as others have mentioned. Not yet sure of the right combination of unplugging/plugging and restarting the sharing application that gets things working again. I suppose this is the biggest annoying thing about this set up - since I don't have other options, it's tolerable.It probably runs best when both systems are on the same screen resolution. Though I was able to run it with one screen at 2560x1440 and one at 1920x1080, the mouse just seems to tend to move a little wonky upon switching when the resolutions are different. I was able to adjust the mouse pointer speed settings in Windows on each system to try to account for this.The application that you'll need to run on both computers comes on the cable itself, which mounts itself as a "CD Drive" when you plug it in. It does not require admin rights to run the exe itself, though admin rights might be needed if you wanted autorun to function. You can certainly access the exe directly via File Explorer, create a shortcut to it, copy it to your local drive and run it from there etc.The application is called "USB Magic Switch" (MagicSwitch.exe). I had issues trying to do an "online update" of the software where it errored out. I was able to update to the latest version however by digging around on the StarTech site to find the direct download on the product page under Downloads. Extract the downloaded file to a local directory AND THEN also extract the file within it to another local directory ("GSEUUTR"). Run "GSEUUTR.exe" from within that extracted directory to update the software on the cable.

Setup is a little tricky and documentation is poor but this actually does exactly what I needed. I have a work laptop and a personal computer on different monitors on my desk but didn't want to keep switching between them manually. With this I can just drag my mouse over to the left or right side of the screen and it automatically changes my mouse just like a much more expensive KM switch would. It does require an agent to be installed on both systems and if you have a locked down work laptop it will ask for a local admin credential. Also to send ctl+alt+del to the second computer you have to do ctl+alt+ins while the input is active on that computer.As a bonus it will also allow you to copy and paste your clipboard or files between the computers as well. Makes it easy to move files in and out of that locked down laptop.

Really cool design. Startech per usual makes an excellent quality filter with plenty of documentation on their tech support site for presale and after sale support. This product is basically two flash drives at the end of a single USB cable with two USB type-A male connectors. The flash drives have both Windows and Mac OSX .exe and .dmg files which autolaunch when inserted and the host computer OS is default configured to autorun any program found on newly inserted flash drives.. if not you have to browse to the flash drive "ends" and manually run the setup program per Windows or OSX. Establishes a USB bridge between Windows and OSX or Windows Windows or OSX OSX over which a keyboard and mouse can be shared. Applications accept a control keystroke to switch master input from one or the other side so that the computer with a keyboard or mouse begins sharing those with the current or other computer. Its like a KVM without the "V-Video". Application (also) can be configured to detect when the mouse is near the edge of the OS display window and "auto-switch" or "glide" from one side of the screen to the screen on the other computer and back again. Its kind of like Synergy with hardware, but no need for a common shared network, or hardwired/dedicated ethernet switch and cables. And its a little like Input Director, but its cross OS compatible.. Win-Win or Win-OSX or OSX-OSX (Clipboard) and (Fileshare) is also shared. Be aware there are other kinds too.. this was USB 2.0 (most compatible across lots of OS editions and versions.. winXP had USB2.0, win7 had USB3.0, OSX different versions had different levels of USB support native. So they also make a "faster" version based on USB3.0 and USB-C as well as this version. The difference is mainly in perceived file transfer speed when using cut and paste between operating systems.. for large files.. that matters. -- This product is perfect if you have dedicated monitors for multiple computers and need to (only) share a keyboard and mouse and occasionally need a secure method of transfering files without a common shared network connection.. I would think Legal firms and Financial firms would really dig this product for obvious reasons.. perhaps even the Military. Definitely Network Security conscious operations.

I purchased this to control my tablet pc from my desktop pc when it is charging. First I downloaded the program from the startech and installed on both computers, then simply plug the cables in. I can easily switch the keyboards, mouse, and display between the to computers (both running win 8.1 64-bit), simply by clicking an icon. The desktop mouse control on the tablet is slightly sluggish, and only the left-click, right-click, and scroll wheel work (none of the extra buttons transfer over from the desktop), but work perfectly acceptable for web-browsing and file transfers - the main function of the tablet. The transfer speeds are noticeably better than USB 2.0 but I did not check the actual speed, just an observation while coping a movie over to the tablet. Also, this cable needs to be plugged directly into the pc, not through a hub. A USB 3.0 extension cable does work if a further distance is needed.

This is the second time I have bought this product. Occasionally the device hangs up when the screen locks on one of the computers. Single controls are a benefit. I especially like the file transfer feature between computers.

This is not a switch. It's a keyboard/mouse emulation system that does exactly the same job as free software such as Barrier, only over USB instead of your local network. It will require the "primary" machine to be powered on to control the "secondary". The drivers included on the device itself do not support MacOS Monterey, which is not made clear in the listing. So on top of being useless for my use-case it's also completely useless if you keep your OS up to date.

Brilliant - big improvement on the old style KVM switch

I've been trying to find a seamless solution to connecting between a personal computer and a work computer that uses vpn without having to press a kvm switch every time I want to switch to another computer. Software solutions like Mouse without borders work work either because of the vpn issue without. But this USB cable works seamlessly and I'm super happy to have found this solution where I don't have to press a button anymore to switch between devices. The switch is quite fast too and in terms of different resolutions for the monitor, i'm using 1 4k resolution and the other computer is 2k and there are no issues at all. It works awesome!

This simply does not work usefully on full HD screens and Windows 10. I installed the Primary as my workstation, running Windows 10 and dual 1920x1080 monitors. Used online update feature to install updated drivers, then connected the second computer, an HP 840 G2 laptop with 1920x1080 screen. Set one of my dual monitors to the laptop, and when the drivers finished installing on the laptop, configured the Startech for hot-key switching. Switched to the laptop, and both the mouse and the keyboard were recognized. BUT, the mouse was completely unusable - massive choppiness and jerking. (Note, this was using USB3 ports on both ends.) Keyboard was semi-usable - slower than native, and definitely slower than my typing, but I could have lived with it if the mouse were even marginally useful. This might be fine for low res monitors, but useless for modern computers.

The product is used as an alternative to a kvm switch but does not require a button to switch between computers to use the keyboard and mouse. This device also adds optional hotkeys, and file transfer which are both very handy.It works smoothly with 1080p hd screens from my experince using a custom gaming computer and a laptop which are both connect to one monitor.