Jeff Hoy, American

 …for new and cool software.  Earlier last week I was looking for a solution to control my laptop from my main computer.  I looked at VNC and found, much to my dismay, that most free/open source clients no longer work with Vista due to a change in the way Vista handles network security.  I experimented a bit with the clients that claimed to work with Vista, but came away unsatisfied.  So I gave up for a time and moved on to other, more pressing issues.

Just the other day though a thought popped into my head about KVM switches and software equivalents.  I had remembered seeing on an episode of the long gone The Screen Savers summaries of software that acts as a KVM (or for me, just a KM) switch.  I couldn’t remember the particular software they talked about but a search turned up many software choices both free and commercial.

After researching my choices I decided on a program by the name of Input Director.  I am very happy with my choice as I have been using it quite a bit without issue and it’s options and ease of use outclass many of the others in the market.  The best feature is the clipboard sharing between machines in my opinion.  I’ve made extensive use of that feature with KeePass.  I no longer have to worry about having a synced password database between my computers.  I can just use the one I have stored on my laptop.

Now, having my laptop set up next to my monitor on my desk, I only have to use it’s keyboard for logging in to Windows at startup.  I tend to keep my computer usage segregated — email, blogging, and web browsing on my laptop — photo editing, gaming, and programming on my desktop.  Having a way to control both without having to take my hands off of one keyboard and mouse will make things a lot easier on me.  It’ll also make things easier on my hands as the laptop keyboard, while good enough for quick typing, just doesn’t have cool things like a numeric keypad or easy access to common function keys.  And my desktop keyboard is more spacious, which makes typing longer screeds much easier.

With Input Director you can very easily control one computer from another over your home network.  You don’t have to be super knowledgeable about computers or networks, you just need to know how to install programs and how to find out your computer’s host name.  It’s very simple and the price, free for non-commercial use, can’t be beat.

The only problem I’ve had is a bit of lag of my inputs sometimes, but I think that has more to do with my network than the software itself.

Anyhow, if you’re looking for a way to control your laptop from your pc then Input Director is for you.  Free, easy, useful.  This software meets all three of my criteria for cool software.