PC desktop and docked MBP. Best practices?

[YoitsTmac]

Hey there. I have a PC connected to two monitors and I just bought a MacBook Pro with the intention of docking it to the same two monitors and in a perfect world, same keyboard and mouse.

What’s the best way to do this? Do I have to plug in my Mac, change the input on both monitors and move my USB Bluetooth adapter for my mouse? How are people managing a windows and Mac environment?

Right now I have an Apple keyboard and a Logitech G603 mouse that connects with a Bluetooth dongle. I figured for the MX Keys keyboard is a good keyboard, but not sure how to manage my mouse and monitors. Surely I’m not the only one here.

 

[ilikewhey]

i pretty much have the same setup.

i don't personally go this route since my dell monitors have build in usb hub, but you can buy a hub and connect everything to it, so whenever you want to switch just plug the usb c port to either the pc or mac.

 

[svenmany]

I work with 3 monitors on my Mac, 2 external. I use Microsoft's Remote Desktop to work on my PC. It does support the use of all the monitors in full screen mode, but I don't use it that way since I don't need that much room for my Windows apps.

I do spend nearly all day on Windows working this way and it's completely usable. I do have an gigabit ethernet switch between the two. It allows me to comfortably switch between windows and mac apps (well, unless I get confused). I always have to remember the choose between things like ctrl-tab/cmd-tab, ctrl-v/cmd-v, etc. But, I've pretty much mastered keeping track of which to use when.

I suppose if you only want to work with one computer at a time, a KVM switch would work. If you're happy to dedicate one monitor to each operating system you could use something like https://symless.com/synergy just to share the keyboard and mouse. I've used Synergy in the past and it worked great.

 

[mfram]

I have two monitors. Each plugged into a PC, a work laptop, and my Mac docking stations (from a 2020 MBP). For keyboard and mouse I'm using the Logitech MX Mechanical and the MX Master 3S. They keyboard and mouse can pair with 3 different devices. I select where the keyboard and mouse should go based on the device switch keys on those devices. Then I select the monitor inputs as needed. Paired the K/M over Bluetooth to the Mac and PCs. Over a Logitech unifying receiver to the work laptop.

 

[maflynn]

I have multiple computers hooked up to one monitor, keyboard and mouse.
Just yourself a KVM. The only fly in the ointment is most (all?) are usba and not usbc. You'll need an adapter to convert to usbc or a usbc hub, which is what I use for my MBP

 

[YoitsTmac]

Hey everyone, thanks for your input. Wow, time flies. I ended up getting the Logitech MX, not because of its switching abilities, but because its the closest keyboard to the Apple one with a USB dongle. I have my USB C hub, which includes USB A ports. On the USB hub, I then have a USB KVM plugged in. On that KVM, I have the USB pluggable dongle for my mouse, and the USB pluggable dongle for my keyboard. The KVM is plugged into the USB C hub for the MacBook Pro, and the PC. So when I want to switch, I change the inputs of the monitors and press a button on the KVM, and all my peripherals work. Not the cleanest solution, but could be messier!