knucklehead 530 Posted October 12, 2014 Is it possible to run two computers on one monitor? Since my printer IS NOT going to cooperate with this Windows 7 machine, I'm thinking about running the Win7 machine, and the XP machine on one monitor. Will have the XP hooked up to nothing but the printer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kylesmash 36 Posted October 12, 2014 I think you could do it. But why would you want to ? Flipping back and forth to 2 different systems just seems like a pain. I have 2 screens for one computer and think I might get a third. I couldn't imagine having two systems and one screen. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
security802 686 Posted October 12, 2014 http://techchannel.radioshack.com/connect-two-computers-one-monitor-1995.html good info Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mopar691 281 Posted October 12, 2014 If you have a separate rip computer or one that you use completely offline this is completely viable and used quite a bit. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Go-C Graphics 856 Posted October 12, 2014 You would need what's Called a KVM switch. It's a little box that your mouse, keyboard, and monitor plugs into. You simply have to push a button to switch to the other computer and you can use the same mouse, keyboard, and monitor. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pshawny 410 Posted October 12, 2014 If they are on the same wired or wireless network, then you can simply share the printer. The print driver may be different for the XP machine and the Win7 machine. You can install additional driver by going to Start>>Control Panel>>Printers. Right click on the printer and run as administrator>>properties. Under sharing you can add the additional drivers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
knucklehead 530 Posted October 12, 2014 KVM switch is probably what I'm looking for. The Win 7 machine will NOT work with the printer, Epson 9600. Epson never wrote any drivers for Win7. Went from Vista, to 8. "They' say, you can make the vista drivers work. Maybe 'they' can, I can't. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trumpy 5 Posted October 13, 2014 KVM is the way to go. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dcbevins 340 Posted October 13, 2014 A good KVM switch might cost as much as a cheap monitor, depending on your monitor connection and video cards, (analog, dvi, hdmi.) A potential no cost solution would be to use some free remote desktop software like RealVNC or possibly the built in desktop sharing depending on your OS. There are ton of remote desktop apps available. The down side is software can be slow, depending. You probably want to get the keyboard, mouse and sound shared. Some remote desktop software can do this, but certainly a KVM switch can. Some monitors have dual inputs, one analog and another digital. Possibly you could plug both computers into the single monitor and use the monitors controls to select the input. However you probably would need two keyboards. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
darcshadow 1,626 Posted October 13, 2014 You can get a simple two device KVM switch from Walmart for under $20. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jay2703 704 Posted October 15, 2014 If it's just the monitor you want to share, your monitor may have a switch built in to go from analog to digital connection. If you monitor has both an VGA (9-pin) and a DVI connection, it probably has it. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
