1 computer, two inputs

[Andrew@21]

I want to have 1 computer be used by 2 people at the same time with separate keyboards and mice as well as different displays. I was wondering if I there is anyway to achieve this. I want to do this so I can pay for 1 computer but use it as 2 computers.

[TheKDub]

Nope, not possible.

[j.dirona]

Don't think so nope

[Fgtfv567]

I've heard about ideas like this, but I don't know if this is possible

[sebekkg]

It is possible. You need to buy device for it. It hooks up to pc and have keyboard and mouse input as audio and video.

[sebekkg]

It is called extender

[soaringchicken]

soz not soz man, you would need some heavy skillage for that

[STRMfrmXMN]

KVM switch - almost.

[hak4fun]

You could take a beefy computer, and setup thin clients. But I don't think you can take one computer, and use it as 2.

[ImBleu]

You could use two monitors and have a shared mouse / keyboard

[Mujteba]

I want to have 1 computer be used by 2 people at the same time with separate keyboards and mice as well as different displays. I was wondering if I there is anyway to achieve this. I want to do this so I can pay for 1 computer but use it as 2 computers.

KVM switch - almost.

That's using one set of keyboard, mouse and display for separate computers. As far I know the above is not possible.

 

Source: Was interested in and researched this same thing some time ago.

[TehTotalPwnage]

Even if it was possible, it'd probably be inefficient. If you have a low to mid tier computer, your computer would probably struggle to death if you, say, had a LAN party for playing some games. Just saying.

[STRMfrmXMN]

That's using one set of keyboard, mouse and display for separate computers. As far I know the above is not possible.

 

Source: Was interested in and researched this same thing some time ago.

Almost was the key world here.

I've used KVM and it's super weird but kinda cool. Set it up for my grandparents

[H37]

I want to have 1 computer be used by 2 people at the same time with separate keyboards and mice as well as different displays. I was wondering if I there is anyway to achieve this. I want to do this so I can pay for 1 computer but use it as 2 computers.

Once upon a time while at a AoE 2 HD LAN party, my buddies primary gaming pc crapped out on him... So another friend gave him this shitty little 2.0ghz dual core laptop to use but it couldnt handle our 200 population cap once the battles commenced. So the 2nd friend who had a pretty beast gaming rig, decided to try running a windows7 virtual machine and remote connecting the laptop to it... Suffice it to say that with very little time came poor implementation and optimization... And although it technically worked w/ the beast pc's game performance for the most part uneffected... The laptop that was remotely connected to the virtual machine saw a negligible performance increase.  B) It was cool to try none the less...

 

But it did seem fairly capable of some basic computing tasks... so unless your trying to run two games on the same pc at once... Then there are ways to build one monster of a pc that does all the heavy lifting. While using a secondary existing desktop/laptop (aka free) to remotely connect to the first, and do some basic tasks... to accomplish this and set everything up correctly, and then further optimize it afterwords... Eh, That will take a lot of time and effort on your part! So can it be done? In theory and to an extant. Yes... BUT Is it worth it to you though? That is the real question. 

[Grrizz]

I've never done it personally but have heard about it in the past, look into "multiseat" to see if you can find something that suits. My first search result for "windows multiseat" was http://www.miniframe.com/ which looks like the sort of thing you want.

[Tr3vor]

I've seen it done before.

 

my school used to do that, 4 stations on one machine. I don't remember the software/hardware required though.

[KingDaddyDaniel]

Mouseparty for several mice. no keyboard support though

[IdeaStormer]

Hence the name "Personal Computer" not "Community Computer" or "Group Computer". Sometimes the most basic things are missed... :mellow:

[babbaj]

VM?

[woodycarson]

You could have the second computer as a virtual machine and passthrough a mouse and keyboard to that VM. For the display you would have to passthrough a discrete card to the guest VM. You can have the guest start up when the host boots. The host would have to be running GNU/Linux for this to work.

 

Edit: You might be able to do with without the discete card (meaning it is possible with a Windows host) although it might not be fast enough if you want to watch video on the guest. If you find a tool that will let you lock the host's cursor to one of the monitors, you can have have the VM start on boot full screened on the other monitor. Again, a second mouse and keyboard will be passed through to that VM.

 

Audio will all go through the host unless you also passthrough an audio device to the guest.

[Profquast]

OP never said anything about gaming, for day to day browsing tasks many computers can easily handle two users at the same time. As someone said before it's called multiseat, but AFAIK there are no free programs available.

[WinNut]

Multiseat.

[witting]

Multiseat.

Yup, my mom's work has a multiseat with 4 ubuntu machines with different input and output.

[Kyuubixchidori]

Yup, my mom's work has a multiseat with 4 ubuntu machines with different input and output.

yeah, you guys are overthinking it. my school before this year used set ups that had 4 "stations", ie a mouse,keyboard and monitor running off of one PC. we used to troll and take the main pc, and delete the running processes of other people. completly possible. even on hardware from 2006

[IdeaStormer]

This thread question pops up again and again, and the answer then is the same answer now, major nope!

 

People keep tossing up ideas/guesses with no factual or functional way to get it to do what is being asked.