This program makes it much easier to work on 2 or 3 computers at the same time. Typically by connecting you desktop with your laptop or give good use to your old computer/laptop.
Compared to similar other programs this program has much smoother and responsive mouse movements, much higher data transfer rates and does enable you to share windows on the screen of the other computers.
How to use the functions:
Connecting 2 or 3 computers.
First install this program on your computers.
Next you need to assign a server role to one computer and a client role to the others. The server is typically the computer which is in the middle because only the server can have 2 connections at the same time.
The server computer will display one or more IP addresses. Typically the first address is the active Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection. Enter this address on the client computer and press connect. On the server there will appear a confirmation box asking if it is ok to connect. When you allow the connection the client computer will be remembered on the server so next time you will not need to reconfirm the connection. You can also select auto connect so next time you start up the connection will be made directly.
Moving the mouse between the computers.
Now you need to specify on which side each computer is so you can smoothly move the mouse cursor between the 2 or 3 screens. To avoid accidentally moving the cursor to the other screen only the centre of the left and right border acts as a portal to the other screen, you can specify how big this area is.
To make it obvious on which computer you are working the inactive screen can be greyed out. The amount of grey you can also specify. Also the keyboard input will follow where the mouse is.
Sharing the clipboard and transferring files.
When you move the mouse to the other computer also the clipboard contents will be transferred to the other computer. To avoid accidental long clipboard transfers the maximum amount of clipboard data that can be transferred can be specified. For example if you often need to transfer 4k screenshots you will need to set this limit to 40MB or higher. The maximum clipboard limit is 250MB. Also you can allow to transfer custom clipboard formats. This is not guaranteed to work since some programs who use custom clipboard formats only accept these from their own programs even if the content is correct.
There is no limit on the amount of files you can transfer.
When you have copied files or folders in the clipboard then when you switch to the other computer immediately a save dialog box will appear allowing you to select the destination folder.
This program will never delete the source files so if you intend of moving the files rather than copying them then you will have to delete them yourself after a successful copy.
Before copying you might need to select the correct action specifying what happens when there are already files with the same name in the destination folder.
Sharing windows.
In the Pro version it is possible to display a program window on the screen of the other computer. For this you will need to specify the hotkey for either moving it to the left screen or the right screen.
Press the hotkey while you have the specific window active and it will appear on the other screen. It will be scaled correctly according to screen size and resolution.
If you want to change the scaling you can simply change the screen size. While you are changing the screen size value all shared windows will return to the original computer.
It has some limitations: Dialog boxes, menus or popup menus don’t show because there are separate windows that only appear on the original computer. Some elements like scrollbars will not react to mouse clicks.
To overcome these limitations an alternative version of KVMShare has been developed that uses a virtual video dummy adapter: The DesktopFushion edition of KVMShare really uses the monitor of a connected computer as a secondary screen of the main computer in a way that all windows running on both computers can be shown on one screen. An alternative use of DesktopFusion is to share a secondary monitor with another computer so 2 people can see and work on the same program window at the same time.
You can still resize the window. If you want to move the shared window you need to grab it by the top left corner because the rest of the title bar is not active!
There are 3 overlay buttons in the top right corner that work like usual except the close button will not end the program but send it back to the original computer.
The refresh rate of the shared window will dynamically shift between the selected FPS and a 8x lower FPS depending on how much changes are happening. This to avoid using too much network bandwidth. In general this method of sharing windows instead of having remote displays over the network will use much less bandwidth and cpu time. The recommended FPS is around 25 which uses not too much CPU and network resources.
Security.
You don’t need to worry that this program opens up your computer to hackers. First of all only connections can be made to your server and only from a computer that is on your local network. Second of all when a connection attempt is made it shows the IP address and computer name so you can check before allowing the connection.
Because only local connections can be made, it was decided not to include an incryption option because this would make the connection much slower. The only way to intercept your data would be if your router/switch was hacked. In that case you have a big problem anyway. If you don't trust your router the best option is to use direct crossover ethernet cables. This is also the fastest option. Gigabit usb ethernet adpaters are very cheap these days and are by far the fastest.
Trouble shooting.
What to do if you cannot make a connection: First of all make sure the connections of both computers are active and working and that they are connected to the same network (typically to the same router). IP addresses should also be properly assigned.
Sometimes after a network interruption it seems impossible to reconnect. But if you restart the programs on the computers it works fine again.
Also check that both incoming and outgoing connections are allowed in the windows firewall rules. This program uses port 24800 with the both TCP and UDP protocol.
If you want to enjoy even higher data transfer rates you can try connecting the 2 computers with a crossover Ethernet cable. Most modern Ethernet adapters recognize when an Ethernet cable is directly connecting 2 computers and will configure the IP addresses automatically. If this doesn’t happen you might have to specify them manually by making sure the first 3 numbers of the address are the same.
You can also use a typical usb 2 or usb 3 KM data link cable by activating the USB Ethernet device in the device manager. Enable the device that is called “OTI”. And again check that the IP addresses on both computers are correct.
If you use this program together with a GiMeSpace Desktop Extender then make sure you start the Desktop Extender before this program. This program will recognise the Desktop Extender and will pause the scrolling when you are working with the other computer.
Known issues.
- Some parts of Windows that run with admin rights like the taskmanager, setup programs and the UAC screens ban keyboard and mouse emulation for security reasons. It is possible avoid this by also running KVMShare as Administrator.
To always run as Administrator follow these steps:
Go to the \Program files (x86)\GiMeSpace KVMShare\ folder and right click on KVMShare.exe to select "Properties"
Go to the "Compatibility" tab and click "Change settings for all users"
Check the "Run this program as an administrator" checkbox and then click OK twice to close program's properties.
Now this program will always run in Administrator mode and will be able to emulate mouse and keyboard input in the taskmanager and UAC screens. You will need to do this on each computer where remote control is required.
There are a few ways to avoid the UAC screen when running this program as administrator, search on internet and pick your favourite one.
- On windows versions prior to Win8.1 sometimes some program windows are not drawn correctly when you send them to the display of another computer. This depends on the display driver.
