Control Multiple Devices With The Same Monitor, Keyboard & Mouse (9 Methods)

If you have multiple computers, servers/NASes or Raspberry Pis around your home, you might have struggled with a simple problem: how to control them all without having LOADS of keyboard, mice and monitors everywhere. I recently hit across this problem after building my Homelab NAS and lugging around a separate monitor and keyboard quickly got annoying: so I went looking for alternatives.

It turns out that there’s actually nine different ways of controlling multiple servers and computers with the same keyboard/mouse and monitor, as I explorein this video. I also discuss the pros and cons of each method.

If you prefer text over video, please read on for the guide/transcript version of this video.

Video Transcript

Hey everyone, if you have two or more computers, Raspberry Pis or home servers, you might not want to haulyour monitor, keyboard and mouse everywhere all around your house every time you need to check something small on one of them. It’s frustrating and can take a lot of time, so I recently went looking for solutions myself because I have my main PC but also a HomeLab NAS over there, and I worked out that there’s 9 methods of using a single monitor and mouse to control them. Well actually it’s more like 20 different methods, but I’ll cover the 9 TYPES of methods – and I’ll also naturally mention all the different products you can use along the way too.

Hardware KVM

So, the “standard” way that you can use your monitor, keyboard and mouse to control multiple devices is to buy what’s known as aKVM switch. With these, you plug your common USB devices (like your wired keyboard and mouse, or your wireless USB controller) into it, and also plug your “output” monitor into them – basically whatever display you want to use. You should THEN run a USB cable from your devices to the switch, so that the switch can control them – and finally you run a HDMI or DisplayPort cable to your devices too (from the KVM switch). This then means that you can simply click a single button, and you can then control your OTHER device straight away. The keyboard, mouse and monitor will magically switch to the other device.

Awesome, right? Well it IS, when it works. I did try out a budget KVM switch with my set-up, that includes a Windows 11 main PC and aDebian Homelab NASand the switch worked fine for my Windows PC, but not my NAS. Debian just refused to show the display output properly. Plus every so often, Windows would “corrupt” and only work in 1080p – even though this is a 4K monitor. One time I actually had to reinstall my display drivers to fix this.

Now this IS partly my fault for buying a budget KVM switch – many more premium switches ARE more reliable, especially if they supportEDID emulation. EDID introduces some extra technologies so that the process of display output switching is smoother and hopefully more reliable. I’d say that if you WERE going to try out a KVM switch, going with a reputable brand like AV Access or TekSmart might make sense – and I’ll put some links to these in the description – but do read the reviews yourself (in-case they won’t work for you for some reason). You’ll probably find that while they work for many people, they don’t for others. That’s the slightly annoying thing with KVM switches. The technology is cool in practice, but it can be a bit buggy too.

Before I move onto the other solutions, I should point out that running USB and HDMI cables between different computers might not always seem practical – especially if they are in separate rooms, after all. Some of the other approaches I cover in this video don’t require running separate cables, so stick around for them – but what you could ALSO do is run cables up into your attic (which I cover in another video), or you could simply the cables along your skirting boards – which is usually easy enough. But you will need to think of how you run your cables with these first few methods.

Monitor KVM (Built In KVM)

That brings me to the second method for controlling multiple devices – some monitors actually have KVM functionality built into them, which is pretty neat. For example these monitors from Gigabyte, LG and Philips allow you to plug in your mouse and keyboard, and then use a USB-C cable from each of your devices and then you can use the monitor itself to switch control between each of your computers or laptops, and that’s pretty cool:

This is often a more reliable approach than using budget KVM switches, plus it has the benefit of needing less wires overall – you don’t have thatseparate switch, and you don’t have to run extra HDMI or DisplayPort cables everywhere, which gets messy VERY quickly.

Quite a few higher end monitors are starting to offer KVM functionality and that’s pretty cool, but I mention those three specific monitors earlier because I know people who have used this KVM mode and it works well for them. It can get confusing too because while LG’s 49 inch wide-screen monitor offers KVM, their 39 inch variant does not – so be sure to check the spec list for any monitor you check out.

Multiple Monitor Cables Plus USB Keyboard

The next solution you can try is a bit of a halfway house – your monitor will naturally allow you to plug multiple cables into it, so you could simply run display cables (like HDMI or DisplayPort) from your different computers, and plug them straight into your monitor. You can then use the standard input switching menu to switch between them. But what about the keyboard and mouse? Well, good question Tristan. Basically what you COULD do is use a simple WIRELESS keyboard and mouse combo, and these can be powered with a simple USB adaptor. So when you want to switch to another device, just move your USB over there. Simple. YES it does require getting out of your seat, but this is a low-tech solution that often works well – especially if your other device is in the same room, or in the next room or something like that.

Having a monitor that supports auto switch source is also important here, because in this case you don’t even need to mess around with your monitor’s input menu – just move the USB adapter to the other device, and your monitor SHOULD switch to it.

USB Switcher

It’s really simple – and I actually did use this method for a few weeks – but there’s five other methods that might work out better for you, especially because  it might not be practical to physically move a USB adapter to a new device, or maybe you just hate wireless keyboard and mice – I get it. I do lots of video editing and a wireless mouse just tend to lag a bit too much for my liking. In this case, you can buy a USB switching device – basically a KVM switch but it doesn’t support monitor output. It only switches USB control from one device to another.

So you would run a USB 3 or USB-C cable from each of your devices, and plug them into the USB switcher. You would THEN plug in your common devices – like a keyboard, mouse and webcam – and it’s all ready to go. When you need to move to another computer, you would simply press a single button and move the USB devices over to your new PC… and then also change the monitor display output IF it doesn’t automatically switch to the new source. So while it IS two things you have to “do”, unlike a monitor KVM switch where you just have a single button then everything changes, this can be quite a good approach.

Plus I tend to find that USB switches are much more reliable than monitor KVM switches. There’s less scope for annoying niggles and bugs and things like that. This is pretty much the method I have gone for, although admittedly I have gone one step jankier and I actually use a static USB hub and then I manually switch which USB3 output the hub should control (by moving the cable around). But that’s mainly because I (1)like my Anker hub (it works fine) and I didn’t really want to shell out more cash on a USB hub with a button, when I have a hub that I’m already happy with.

Logitech Unifying

While USB switches CAN work well, there’s actually two neat alternatives which are worth knowing about. Firstly Logitech have a pretty cool bit of technology that they callUnifying(that’s a nice name!). With this you plug a single USB adapter into ONE of your devices, and then you can pair your Logitech keyboard and mice to it (in-fact, up to 6 devices if you wanted to go crazy!). You then install some Logitech software on your other computers, and they can share the same keyboard and mouse. So that’s pretty cool and this should work well for some cases, BUT firstly you have to buy all Logitech devices for this to work PLUS this is more designed for use with a single notebook or laptop – being able to move your laptop around the house and then sit down at a desk and start using the keyboard and mouse there WITHOUT needing to mess around with finding the right USB adaptor and plugging that in. If you want to be sat at ONE desk and control FIVE different computers (for example) with the same hardware, with the same monitor and keyboard, Logitech Unifying might not be the right choice.

Software

And that brings us onto the final four methods, and NONE of these require you to run HDMI or USB cables all around your house and make a mess – which is a bonus. Firstly you can use what’s known as a software KVM – which basically allows you to share your keyboard and mouse over the network – via Wi-Fi or Ethernet.

The way this works is that you install software on BOTH your computers (or your devices if you have multiple), and you can then often press a certain keyboard button OR move your mouse off the edge of your screen, and control will then move to your other computer. You WILL still need to change your monitor output, of course, but this can be a neat solution.

In terms of what software to use, there’s LOADS of choice:

Software likeMouse Without Bordersis arguably the best choice if you run Windows on all your PCs, because it was actually created by a Microsoft employee and you can download this for free from Microsoft’s own website. On the other end of the spectrum, you haveSynergywhich is a paid-for but it supports Linux and Mac too, so this can be a GREAT solution if you have a slightly more complicated computer set-ups in your house or office There ARE a bunch of other choices though, and some have both free and paid plans, while others are paid-for only.

Software KVM can be a pretty cool solution, especially because they often allow you to share the clipboard between both systems – basically meaning that you can then COPY text on one system, and PASTE it on another – even if you’re switching between Windows and Mac (for example). So that’s neat, but there’s two downsides to be aware of.

Firstly, since there are software solutions, they won’t work when your system is booting up – for example they won’t work when your system is showing a Grub boot loader menu, or when you want to go into a BIOS menu. Secondly because this works over the internet, you ideally need a rock solid internet connection. Using slow, unreliable WiFi will just result in lots of input lag with your mice and keyboard – which can get annoying, really quickly.

Remote Desktop

The seventh method for controlling multiple devices with the same monitor and keyboard is to explore RDP – remote desktop. This is where you enable or install software within your various computers, and then you can “jump” into one of them from your main PC. Windows actually has built-in remote desktop software, but this only works with Windows Pro or Enterprise – not the home edition. It works fairly well though, allowing you to operate the other computer as though you are really there, which is cool. I used to use this a lot in a previous job, if we needed to quickly remote into our work computer to check or change something quickly when we were home.

There are lots of remote desktop programs out there though, with Team Viewer, RustDesk and AnyDesk probably being the most popular options and they all offer free versions for personal use, but then a range of paid-for plans for companies and to get some extra features. Remote desktop can work really well too, but input lag can still be a bit of a problem (especially if you have weaker Wi-Fi or router).

SSH

The next option is to look at command line control of your systems – which naturally won’t work if you plan on gaming or video editing from another PC, but this does work really well for basic monitoring, installing certain programs and general system management. To do this, you need to enable a SSH server on your other computer, and then you download a SSH client on your main PC – such as Putty or Mobaxterm. You THEN create a new SSH session, entering the IP address of your other PC (or other PCs), along with the username and password and connect to the system.

You can then manage the other computer as you would like, and THIS is what I mainly do to control my HomeLab NAS, over there, which runs Debian. It’s a really simple process. Now, traditionally this SSH method wouldn’t have (easily) worked with Windows, but in recent years they have also added SSH support so you can actually SSH into your Windows box too – although granted you then need to re-learn all the Windows command – for example entering “dir” not “ls” to list all files within a directory. But that’s no major problem and SSH can be good if you’re not doing GUI type work.

KVM over IP

My final method is to explore KVM over IP. As the name suggests, this offers KVM (input switching) type functionality to re-use your monitor, keyboard and mouse on other computers. BUT this is designed to work over the network, and you achieve this by plugging a device into your other computers – and then this gives you full control of that other device from your main system.

Because this can actually run over the network, this introduces a really cool benefit because you could actually use KVM over IP to control computers anywhere in the world. Just install a KVM over IP switch in your friend’s nuclear submarine, and you’re golden. Okay maybe not, but this IS a great technology – with two downsides. Firstly because you’re buying a separate, physical device that has LOTS of powerful and cool features… it’s kinda expensive – with many KVM over IP switches costing many hundreds of dollars or pounds. Secondly SOME of these switches won’t actually work for boot-up control, like logging into the BIOS. You’ll need one with out-of-band management features, such asSpider KVMor some more enterprise KVM switches – and these are more expensive again.

Being able to control multiple computers or devices from a single set of hardware is actually a pretty interesting area, and with more people than ever running Raspberry Pis and media systems, this is a general problem that many of us are starting to face. I’d love to know what method you use to control all your devices, so please let me know down in the comments. I personally use a mix of SSH and manual monitor and USB switching to control my HomeLab NAS since these are the most reliable (and lowest cost) options, and I show off more information on this (including some issues I faced along the way) in another video if you wanted to check that out.

Tristan has been interested in computer hardware and software since he was 10 years old. He has built loads of computers over the years, along with installing, modifying and writing software (he’s a backend software developer ‘by trade’).Tristan also has an academic background in technology (in Math and Computer Science), so he enjoys drilling into the deeper aspects of technology.Tristan is also an avid PC gamer, with FFX and Rocket League being his favorite games.