[SOLVED] One desktop, one mouse, two cursors?

[CodyJF]

Okay, this is kind of an off-the-wall question, so bear with me.

Is it possible to plug a single mouse into a PC with two monitors, and generate two cursors? The idea is that each monitor would get its own cursor, and they would move, click and function identically.

Basically just looking for a proof of concept. A friend of mine and I were wondering if it would be possible. Thanks!

 

[Grobe]

The nearest existing solution that I know about must be virtual desktops- most Linux distros support this. And if you happens to run one distro with Xfce desktop, the virtual desktop can be set up in a way so that the mouse pointer can "go through the edge" of the screen and into the next virtual desktop. Forget it - I just realised you have two monitors.

Why in the heavens earth do you want to control two mouse pointers simoultaneously? What if there is a button somewhere on monitor 2 that says "nuke" (something bad might happens) - and it happens so that you need to click at the same location on monitor 1 (to get rid of some nagging ad).

 

[gn842a]

? If you're two screens are set for "duplicate displays" then you will have two identical displays and the one cursor will do the same things on both displays.

If you mean with an extended display, I'm not aware of a two cursor option. You can have two mouses and use one on one screen and one on the other, but if you want the cursor to on screen 1 and it is somewhere in screen 2 you have to drag it back to screen one. Two mouses two cursors could come in handy when for example streaming a movie on one side of the extended display while someone wants to do some writing on the other.

 

[Grobe]

I've just had some thinking.

The description in first post seems a little vague. If you mean two cursors, and it's function is either:

• Switching between cursor A and B. Cursor A can only be at monitor 1 and vice versa, and when switching, then the cursor you switch from deactivates - meaning it's not moving nor can it handle/transfer any mouse click.
• Both cursor A and cursor B moves simoultaneously, but only one is active - transfer clicks.

Both cases assumes use of hotkeys - because extended desktop already exists, and we now that is not what you want).

Thing is, I think that is fairly possible to achieve - using an Autohotkey script. You need an image of the deactivated mouse pointer that can be used as an overlay.

Only problem I assume you'll experience is that there might be some lag if you try to control both pointers simoultaneously.

 

[USAFRet]

Outside of random curiosity, what would be the use case for this?

 

[gn842a]

Outside of random curiosity, what would be the use case for this?

I can't answer for OP. But in my setup I have one screen which is a home theater and another which is for working and net surfing. 99.999% of the time these days, that means duplicate displays, often with one turned off. But my kid is out of the house.

When he was younger and had pals after school who wanted to watch a movie, it was possible for me to be word processing on one end of the extended display in one room while they were watching the movie on the other end of the extended display in the other room. It was a bit of a chore, if they wanted to stop the movie for a bit and run around, I had to transfer the cursor over to "their side" so they could use the mouse on "their side" to stop the movie, then transfer the cursor back so I could do what I wanted to do.

In theory two mouses with two cursors would have simplified the sharing. As a practical matter I think it would be headache. Anyhow to think of applications just think of two screens in two rooms sharing a PC which is in one room. When you are in room A you need a mouse there to maneuver on the screen there and you need another mouse in room B to maneuver on the screen there. This much I have, but it's duplicate screen mode. On extended screen you have the processing power to satisfy two different uses at once, like streaming a video and surfing the net, and the tricky part of it is going back and forth with the mouse. Cursor battles arose on a few occasions during the "extended screen" era that my son and his friends wanted the mouse at the same time I did. Eventually I built a second computer and kicked 'em upstairs.

Anyhow that's about the only scenario I could think of.

Greg N

 

[Sagar_20]

If you are rather interested in a mouse that has the ability to switch from one pc to another in 1 click wirelessly, you can consider the Logitech M590 Silent.

It will connect to PC 1 using bluetooth and the PC 2 using a Unifying adapter.

A unifying adapter lets you connect up to 6 compatible devices wirelessly.

 

[Gam3r01]

Sounds like multi-boxing to me
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-boxing

 

[USAFRet]

If you are rather interested in a mouse that has the ability to switch from one pc to another in 1 click wirelessly, you can consider the Logitech M590 Silent.

It will connect to PC 1 using bluetooth and the PC 2 using a Unifying adapter.

A unifying adapter lets you connect up to 6 compatible devices wirelessly.

My MX Master 2S does that. Flows seamlessly between 2 or 3 systems.
Get to the right edge of System A screen, and the USB adapters flow the cursor across to the other system.
It works, mostly. And it also works with relevant Logi keyboards.
https://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/options/page/flow-multi-device-control