How to turn your dual-monitor PC into a dual mac-PC system
I have what I believe is my dream setup. My office desk has one keyboard and mouse in the middle, and two monitors above. On the left, I have OS X running from my powerbook and on the right, I have Windows XP running on my HP desktop. ThereÂ’s one mouse pointer and I can move it back and forth across the monitors just like I was on a single system. While I canÂ’t drag windows from one monitor to the other, I can copy and paste text across and move files easily with mapped desktop drives on both ends.
Simply put, I get the best of both worlds. I can stick to Mail, iCal, and iChat for productivity on the mac side, while running audio, video, and text editors on the PC side (I will always have a PC around just for Homesite, which IÂ’m using to write this very article). I can run any app that comes out and catches some buzz and I have the ultimate web browser testing environment. In a matter of seconds, I can tell you if a new design will work in any of six popular browsers across both platforms.
With the advent of some open source tools and the Mac mini, itÂ’s easier than ever to duplicate this setup if youÂ’ve got two monitors running on a PC.
1. Go buy a Mac mini, powerbook, ibook, or G5 desktop
You canÂ’t have both platforms on your desk if you donÂ’t own two machines. I suggest the mini since itÂ’s the cheapest and easiest here. If you donÂ’t have a second mouse, buy one too and keep it attached to your mac.
2. Disconnect your second monitor from your PC
It’s easiest if you have a dual monitor PC setup because you’d have an extra monitor already and be used to working with multiple screens. I had my office desktop set up like this for about a year before I moved a mac alongside my PC. I would keep productivity apps like email and IM on one window, my “work” apps on the right (coding, photoshop, etc).
3. Attach your second mouse and original keyboard and previously disconnected monitor to your new mac
YouÂ’ll need to boot it up after you take it out of the box, get it setup and on your network, then you just have to put one essential application on it.
4. Download and install Synergy to your mac
This killer open source app recently got a friendly GUI makeover, available here. Download it, and install it per the instructions. Set it to “Connect to a shared keyboard and mouse” in the General settings and under the Client Configuration, put the internal IP address of your PC. In my case, my PC is 192.168.1.102. It will automatically connect on boot up and when returning from sleep.
5. Download and install Synergy to your PC
Put your keyboard back on your PC (which still has the mouse) and get it booted up. Download the latest version of Synergy for the PC here and install it. Run it and check the “Server” radio button. Hit the Add button to name your Screens. My mac is 192.168.1.101 and is known as mathowie.local on the network. My PC is 192.168.1.102 and I entered mathowie.local for the mac screen and 192.168.1.102 for the PC screen. Click each one after adding, and tell the app what is to the right and left of that monitor. So for my mac, I set the Right to my PC screen, and for the PC, I set my left to the mac Screen name.
There are advanced options to autostart on boot up which youÂ’ll want to enable and the Advanced tab will ask for the client name, and I put my IP in there. Hit the big Start button when youÂ’re done.
6. Connect the Synergy mac client to the Synergy PC server
If all went well, you should be all ready to go. Using a mouse connected to the mac to highlight the synergy icon in the top bar, and hit enable Synergy in the menu to start the client. If you see the status Connected and a full color blue and green icon with three dots in it, youÂ’re connected. Drop the mac mouse and go to your main PC keyboard and mouse, then move it off the screen towards your mac. You should have control of the mouse on the mac now, in a smooth motion across the multiple desktops. Start some apps and move back and for enjoying your new setup.
Troubleshooting and other considerations
ItÂ’ll probably take some tinkering to get it right. This page is a pretty good tutorial on getting your connections right, which is usually the problem. You might also have trouble with your mac or PC screensavers kicking in and going to sleep if you stay on one side too long. I set my sleep settings to a half hour on both sides, and if I stick to one side beyond that, I simply mouse over to the other monitor every once in a while to wake it back up. If you leave for a few hours, chances are your mac will go completely silent and asleep with default energy settings. Usually hitting a button on a mouse attached to the mac will wake it back up and reconnect to the Synergy server.
Once youÂ’ve got it working, youÂ’ll soon realize that it was worth the effort and cost. There is incredible flexibility and power knowing you can run any new mac or PC application that comes out and you can stick with your favorites on both systems.
I have what I believe is my dream setup. My office desk has one keyboard and mouse in the middle, and two monitors above. On the left, I have OS X running from my powerbook and on the right, I have Windows XP running on my HP desktop. ThereÂ’s one mouse pointer and I can move it back and forth across the monitors just like I was on a single system. While I canÂ’t drag windows from one monitor to the other, I can copy and paste text across and move files easily with mapped desktop drives on both ends.
Simply put, I get the best of both worlds. I can stick to Mail, iCal, and iChat for productivity on the mac side, while running audio, video, and text editors on the PC side (I will always have a PC around just for Homesite, which IÂ’m using to write this very article). I can run any app that comes out and catches some buzz and I have the ultimate web browser testing environment. In a matter of seconds, I can tell you if a new design will work in any of six popular browsers across both platforms.
With the advent of some open source tools and the Mac mini, itÂ’s easier than ever to duplicate this setup if youÂ’ve got two monitors running on a PC.
1. Go buy a Mac mini, powerbook, ibook, or G5 desktop
You canÂ’t have both platforms on your desk if you donÂ’t own two machines. I suggest the mini since itÂ’s the cheapest and easiest here. If you donÂ’t have a second mouse, buy one too and keep it attached to your mac.
2. Disconnect your second monitor from your PC
It’s easiest if you have a dual monitor PC setup because you’d have an extra monitor already and be used to working with multiple screens. I had my office desktop set up like this for about a year before I moved a mac alongside my PC. I would keep productivity apps like email and IM on one window, my “work” apps on the right (coding, photoshop, etc).
3. Attach your second mouse and original keyboard and previously disconnected monitor to your new mac
YouÂ’ll need to boot it up after you take it out of the box, get it setup and on your network, then you just have to put one essential application on it.
4. Download and install Synergy to your mac
This killer open source app recently got a friendly GUI makeover, available here. Download it, and install it per the instructions. Set it to “Connect to a shared keyboard and mouse” in the General settings and under the Client Configuration, put the internal IP address of your PC. In my case, my PC is 192.168.1.102. It will automatically connect on boot up and when returning from sleep.
5. Download and install Synergy to your PC
Put your keyboard back on your PC (which still has the mouse) and get it booted up. Download the latest version of Synergy for the PC here and install it. Run it and check the “Server” radio button. Hit the Add button to name your Screens. My mac is 192.168.1.101 and is known as mathowie.local on the network. My PC is 192.168.1.102 and I entered mathowie.local for the mac screen and 192.168.1.102 for the PC screen. Click each one after adding, and tell the app what is to the right and left of that monitor. So for my mac, I set the Right to my PC screen, and for the PC, I set my left to the mac Screen name.
There are advanced options to autostart on boot up which youÂ’ll want to enable and the Advanced tab will ask for the client name, and I put my IP in there. Hit the big Start button when youÂ’re done.
6. Connect the Synergy mac client to the Synergy PC server
If all went well, you should be all ready to go. Using a mouse connected to the mac to highlight the synergy icon in the top bar, and hit enable Synergy in the menu to start the client. If you see the status Connected and a full color blue and green icon with three dots in it, youÂ’re connected. Drop the mac mouse and go to your main PC keyboard and mouse, then move it off the screen towards your mac. You should have control of the mouse on the mac now, in a smooth motion across the multiple desktops. Start some apps and move back and for enjoying your new setup.
Troubleshooting and other considerations
ItÂ’ll probably take some tinkering to get it right. This page is a pretty good tutorial on getting your connections right, which is usually the problem. You might also have trouble with your mac or PC screensavers kicking in and going to sleep if you stay on one side too long. I set my sleep settings to a half hour on both sides, and if I stick to one side beyond that, I simply mouse over to the other monitor every once in a while to wake it back up. If you leave for a few hours, chances are your mac will go completely silent and asleep with default energy settings. Usually hitting a button on a mouse attached to the mac will wake it back up and reconnect to the Synergy server.
Once youÂ’ve got it working, youÂ’ll soon realize that it was worth the effort and cost. There is incredible flexibility and power knowing you can run any new mac or PC application that comes out and you can stick with your favorites on both systems.
