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My wife and I... have a wall of screens. 1 for her, 4 for me. (It's unfair.) About 26 sq ft of screen mounted on the wall.

So sometimes, it would be nice if she could just move her mouse over from her screen (1 of 5) to my leftmost screen (2 of 5), and click something. (Next song, song lyrics refresh, etc. That screen is the "music & email screen".)

VNC is not an acceptable solution. I would be using my own mouse pointer on my own screen while she would be doing this.

Synergy is not an acceptable solution. We are two people. We are sitting next to each other actively using our computers simultaneously.

The main problem is... I don't think Windows 7's GUI is written to handle anything like this. But I imagine you could emulate a 2nd mouse pointer, and when clicked, it would simply save the location of the real mouse pointer, move it, click it, and move it back -- probably in less tiue than the visible eye could see. It's definitely "doable".

[For the morbidly curious: Screen 1=wife primary, Screen 2=music, 3=home theatre/my primary, 4=IP cam view of outside, 5=digital picture frame, basically]

ClioCJS
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  • The `Dual Mouse & keyboard` looks promising but hasn't been updated in a bit. Last was 2013 so it would probably still run fine with Windows 7. http://superuser.com/questions/29432/using-windows-7-how-can-you-use-multiple-mice-to-get-multiple-cursors – MC10 Aug 06 '15 at 23:22
  • Btw, are screen 1 and screens 2-5 connected to different computers? – MC10 Aug 06 '15 at 23:22
  • Most music players support hotkey -- if not, get another one. – lex Aug 07 '15 at 01:31
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    and technically its impossible because the system can only have one mouse pointer and you can't have 2 pointers at the same time. – lex Aug 07 '15 at 01:33

2 Answers2

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Maybe not the ideal solution but possibly the easiest: plug in a second mouse for your wife. Your mouse movements would conflict, but if it's as rare as you mention it might be the most effective.

Another option might be to set up some hotkeys that do all the actions you want. i.e. if you really only want to change the song, adjust volume, etc, she doesn't need a mouse.

I'll be curious to see what other people come up with.

tbenz9
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  • I would think that is ideal, no extra software to work partly, no net data having to transfer about, hardly any compatability issues if one upgrades, and windows copes easily with multiple input devices (minus some of the software for them) No big effort required to take away processing power. Even a cheap simple small wireless mouse would work at that distance and can have an off button. – Psycogeek Aug 07 '15 at 00:48
  • Optimal solution. I do this occasionally to new coworkers for a little fun. – beeks Aug 07 '15 at 02:49
  • That doesn't actually make it any easier -- If she took over, she'd still have to move it across 4 screens, and I'd still have to move it 4 screens back, saving no effort at all. – ClioCJS Aug 08 '15 at 17:28
  • As others have pointed out its impossible to have two mouse (mice?) pointers on one Windows OS. So your options are are move the pointer or try hotkeys, both of which are in the answer above. – tbenz9 Aug 08 '15 at 17:56
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This should be possible. First off, I get a 2nd keyboard with multimedia keys (play, pause, stop, etc). These are fairly cheap from any store. Attach it to your computer, but put it on her desk. You may have to go wireless...

The multimedia keys will work out of the box. Play, pause, next, stop, volume, etc.

I get the impression you have some computer knowledge, so I think you can figure out the following. Now, if you want to do anything more complex, that will require more work. I highly recommend AutoHotKey. It can automate just about anything. Install AutoHotKey on your computer and using AutoHotKey's HID functions (The HID functions will tell you which keyboard sent the keys), you should be able to write scripts that are triggered by other keys on that multimedia keyboard. You could write a script that refreshes a specific browser window on your computer when F5 is refreshed, or just about anything you want.

Edit: You could do this without the multimedia keyboard and use a AHK with a gaming mouse with lots of buttons. However, those mice are more expensive and have tiny buttons. At least with a keyboard the multimedia buttons are clearly marked and the keys are easily pressed. You could even color code the keys...

Keltari
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  • I *already* have what you described employed. Command-line scripts too. Custom-infrared-sensor infrared events, too. But every solution is only the easiest solution in certain use cases. I'm looking for the answer to the question I asked. With mice. You can't build a custom interface for everything, or we could do away with mice entirely. What if she wants to resize the lower-left corner of the window? There's not enough keys in the universe. – ClioCJS Aug 08 '15 at 17:30
  • @ClintJCL So use a mouse.... nothing changes. – Keltari Aug 08 '15 at 17:40
  • ^ That response doesn't even make sense. She might be 2 monitors closer to the window than I am, and she might be the one who cares at that moment, while I'm doing something else. She should just be able to move *her* mouse over, even though she's on another computer. I don't think there's currently a solution out there, since most people simply argue with the idea instead. – ClioCJS Aug 09 '15 at 18:37