Using two keyboards and mice separately on dual monitors?

[EdwardIIV]

Hi.

Is it possible to use two keyboards and two mice respectively on dual monitors? I'd like to play some games on my system once it's done with my brother, but the way I'm looking to do so is using a keyboard and mouse for each monitor on dual monitors, basically more or less acting like two different PCs.

 

The way I'd like to do this is simply by assigning a keyboard and a mouse for each monitor respectively. Is there any simple way of doing this on the same OS, without virtual machines and the like?

 

Cheers!

[Twister]

I'm also wondering this if it's possible to have 2 mice plugged in same time, cause I have a fps mouse and a RTS/RPG mouse and It's annoying to plugin/plugout every time depending on what game I play.

[EdwardIIV]

14 hours ago, huilun02 said:

No. You need to run a VM to do this. You also need dedicated graphics card and sound device for each user. A single GPU and the onboard audio cannot split its workload for two concurrent operating systems. Best to have each monitor come with built-in speakers or at least an audio passthrough, so that each graphics card can double up as the sound device by their HDMI/Displayport output.

 

I'm not going to explain anything in detail as I have not done something like this before.

As far as I know there is no simple method that works without configuring a VM. Good luck.

I'm not so sure I'll need a separate GPU and sound device for each as what I want to do is relatively simple. All I want to do is run the same game on two separate windows (which is possible with the game(s) I'm planning on playing), and I just want a mouse and keyboard to control each. Are you sure a VM is the only way?

[EdwardIIV]

1 hour ago, huilun02 said:

Running the same game twice is the same as running two games.

Each GPU can only output display for one user at any given time.

Ask anyone else... you will get the same answer. You can ask Google too.

Yea but why would each GPU only be able to output display for one user at any given time.

It's like running two different instances of Google Chrome, which is possible.

I've done it before with the game I'm planning on playing, running it twice on the same PC.

 

[EDIT] Here's an example running two instances of Minecraft on my current laptop (which is potentially one of the games I'll want to play with my brother) simultaneously;

http://prntscr.com/f2g1al

 

So is it possible to instead have one mouse and keyboard control each game separately? And if I'll have to use a VM, will I need to have two GPUs? And is it possible to instead use a dual boot for this rather than running a VM?

[EdwardIIV]

1 minute ago, huilun02 said:

No point arguing.

You simply cannot have two independent set of cursors and keyboard input in an instance of operating system. Period.

I'm no computer genius who wrote Windows or have any power to dictate how a computer is run.

If you are determined to find a solution that does not involve running a VM, I cannot offer you a solution.

Perhaps look for someone else.

You seem to mistake my point of discussion; it is not regarding the VM. I believe I'll be fine running a separate VM for this, however my question is instead regarding the dual GPUs, will I need that, or is is it possible to run it on a single GPU instead?

[EdwardIIV]

Just now, huilun02 said:

Not possible as far as I can tell

Maybe you can give it a try? I haven't done something like this before.

I'll give it a try once I get my PC and update this, but for now, I'm open to more solutions from anyone else.

Thanks for all your help mate!