Red Rover, Red Rover, send my mouse pointer right over
I recently discovered a nifty little desktop app called Desktop Rover. It's an application I've wanted for a long time.
Basically, if you have a couple of PC's with their monitors sitting next to each other, this application allows you to treat the second PC as if it were an extension of the first PC's desktop. So, instead of having to use a KVM switch, or even worse, switch to a different keyboard and mouse, you just keep moving your mouse pointer off the edge of the first PC's monitor and on to the second PC. Now, you can do things on the second PC with the keyboard and mouse, as if you were using the keyboard and mouse attached to it. You can even cut and paste between the two PC's.
There are some drawbacks. First, it's not free. It's $48 for a two-license pack. I feel that price is a little bit high, but on the other hand, I'm not aware of any similar alternative solutions. For me, at least, it is worth the cost. You can also obtain a trial license so that you can try the software before making a final decision. Secondly, while you can cut and paste between the two systems, this does not work perfectly. Sometimes it just doesn't seem to pick up what I'm trying to cut.
Overall, I find it to be a very useful app that nicely fills its niche. Once configured, it works reliably and unobtrusively.
Basically, if you have a couple of PC's with their monitors sitting next to each other, this application allows you to treat the second PC as if it were an extension of the first PC's desktop. So, instead of having to use a KVM switch, or even worse, switch to a different keyboard and mouse, you just keep moving your mouse pointer off the edge of the first PC's monitor and on to the second PC. Now, you can do things on the second PC with the keyboard and mouse, as if you were using the keyboard and mouse attached to it. You can even cut and paste between the two PC's.
There are some drawbacks. First, it's not free. It's $48 for a two-license pack. I feel that price is a little bit high, but on the other hand, I'm not aware of any similar alternative solutions. For me, at least, it is worth the cost. You can also obtain a trial license so that you can try the software before making a final decision. Secondly, while you can cut and paste between the two systems, this does not work perfectly. Sometimes it just doesn't seem to pick up what I'm trying to cut.
Overall, I find it to be a very useful app that nicely fills its niche. Once configured, it works reliably and unobtrusively.
posted by eric at
11/15/2004 03:40:00 PM
2 Comments:
realvnc is a free alternative, working like a charm, even between a Windows and a Linux machine and vice versa!
jens g.r. benthien
industrial designer
jens_at_highspeedweb_dot_net
First off, thanks for your feedback!
RealVNC is indeed a great program (though when I'm using VNC, I am partial to UltraVNC), but I'm not sure that it really does the same thing as the application I'm talking about. AFAIK, RealVNC is more like "PC Anywhere" where you run the client on computer A to connect to the server on computer B. The client on computer A gets basically a mirror image of what's on computer B giving you a method of remotely accessing computer B.
This program is a little different, and fills what is undoubtedly a much smaller niche than RealVNC. Instead of computer B being a remote system somewhere else, computer B is actually sitting right next to computer A, and computer B's monitor is distinct from, and sitting right next to, computer A's monitor. What Desktop Rover allows you to do is use the mouse and keyboard on computer A, and move the mouse pointer seemlessly from monitor A to monitor B, and then perform actions on computer B, but using computer A's mouse and keyboard. So computer B's desktop and monitor essentially become an extension of computer A's desktop.
If you are using VNC, you can access computer B from A, but you have to start up the client, which opens a window on A (mirroring the display on B, which in this scenario is already visible right in front of you), then you have to close down or minimize the client window when you want to go back and do something on computer A. So it's not quite the same thing.
Hopefully I have clarified this and not simply muddied the waters even further. Of course, it's also entirely possible that RealVNC has options that allow it to mimic the behavior of Desktop Rover instead of operating in the more traditional VNC manner and I am simply not aware of it. I did a quick check of the RealVNC site though and couldn't find it.
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