1 Install ‘Mouse without Borders’
We’re going to show you several ways you can use a second screen with your PC, but we’ll start with one of the simplest: ‘Mouse without Borders’. This free program from Microsoft lets you use a single keyboard and mouse to control up to four computers at a time, as long as they’re running Windows Vista or later (although some features are only supported from Windows 7 onwards). Download it from www.snipca.com/34678
and, when the download is complete, launch it.
Unless you want to read the privacy notice (in which case, click Privacy), click Next on the first screen of the installation, check through the licence terms, then click Install. When asked if you’re happy for the installer to make changes to your PC, click Yes, then click Finished on the Installation Successful screen.
Repeat the installation process on your second computer and – when they’re both showing the ‘Let’s get started’ screen
– sit down in front of your main machine. Even though the program is running on both computers, click No to establish this device as your primary PC, then switch to your second computer and, to the same question – ‘Have you already installed Mouse without Borders on another computer?’ – click Yes.
Your first computer will now be showing a security code, and the computer’s name (see screenshot top left of page 36) – the latter is set in Windows Settings. Type each of these
into the matching boxes in the window displayed on the second computer. Doing so confirms that the two should be able to communicate with each other, and that the first machine should be able to control the second. Click Link on the second machine, then click Next followed by Done on both machines.
You can now move your cursor from one screen to the other, simply by dragging it beyond the edge of the main display.