USBKVM

This is an app that turns a basic USB switch into a full automatic monitor switch (minus 'hotkey' switching).

USBKVM heavily utilizes ControlMyMonitor to switch the inputs programmatically. USBKVM simply adds logic around it.

How does it work

USBKVM watches for USBHub connect/disconnects from the machine. When detected, it will switch all configured monitors to the desired inputs.

For example, if the USB switch is toggled from PC1 to PC2, USBKVM will switch all configured monitors to the set inputs for PC2. Toggle the USB switch back to PC1 and all monitors will be set back to PC1's configured inputs.

Why

I have two computers connected to the same set of monitors. A traditional KVM switch that supports USB and 3+ video outputs are stupid expensive. With USBKVM, we can make a Cheap USB switch do the same thing (minus hot-key switching).

Requirements

• USB Hub Switch (Example)
• Windows (while it is written in .NET Core, it uses WqlEventQuery)
• Two machines, connected to the same set of monitors but in different inputs
  • Example: PC1 is plugged into the HDMI1 ports on all three monitors, while PC2 is plugged into the DVI2 ports on all three monitors
  • The number of monitors does not matter. This will work with 1 or 100+ monitors.

Download

See Releases

Settings

The settings can be adjusted in Settings.xml. Open this in your favorite file editor.

Setting Name	Description
PC*.Name	Name of PC1 and PC2. This can be retrieved by running hostname in command prompt.
Monitor.Name	Name of the monitor. This can be retrieved from running ControlMyMonitor.exe (included). See ControlMyMonitor docs for more information on getting the monitor name (Command-Line Options section).
Monitor.PC*_Input	The input number that is used for the monitor on PC1. This value can be retrieved from running ControlMyMonitor.exe (included) and looking at the current value of 60 (Input select)

Add/Remove <Monitor Name="MONITOR-NAME" PC1_Input="00" PC2_Input="00"></Monitor> for each monitor you are using.

Triple Monitor Example

<Settings>
  <PC1 Name="DESKTOP"></PC1>
  <PC2 Name="NEDLAPTOP"></PC2>
  <Monitor Name="PVJVW4CI15LL" PC1_Input="17" PC2_Input="16"></Monitor>
  <Monitor Name="VVF203600230" PC1_Input="15" PC2_Input="17"></Monitor>
  <Monitor Name="PVJVW4CI1E7L" PC1_Input="17" PC2_Input="16"></Monitor>
</Settings>

Using

Once configured, run USBKVM.exe. If configured properly, pressing the switch button on your USB switch will trigger USBKVM to automatically switch all monitor inputs to the machine the USB device is currently connected to. It can be run on only one of the two machines but works better when run on both simultaneously (incase one machine goes to sleep/turns off). It is also recommended to have this run on startup (create a shortcut to the app and place it in the shell:startup folder.

Run In Tray

Since this is a console application, I cannot make it minimize to tray. However, you can use other third-party tools to achieve this. I use RBTray.