Mac Mini - using laptops keyboard and mouse?

Hi all,


Heres an interesting question...

I have a new Alienware MX17 laptop a few months old and have just bought a mac mini to accompany this.

Whats brilliant is the use of the hdmi IN port on my laptop, thus enabling me to use the laptops decent 1080p screen for the mac mini.

However... this still leaves the keyboard and mouse unaccounted for, and whilst i can happily keep a spare keyboard and mouse in my laptops backpack... I am sure you would agree that it would be far more elegant for me to be able to use the laptops inbuilt keyboard and mouse trackpad?

Can this be done? in any way shape or form? - as you can imagine I am keen to have the best of both worlds here, both Mac and Windows. I would appreciate any help or advice any of you may have on this?

(ive currently got a KVM switch setup between my desktop PC and mac mini, which works great with my keyboard and mouse too via usb - but its the mobile solution that I would love to perfect!)

Thank you very much in advance

 

Simply put, no. Next best thing would be to get an Apple wireless keyboard and Magic Trackpad. If that's too expensive, a Logitech mouse and keyboard that use the brand's unifying receiver would work.

 

As saturnotaku said, there isn't a way to use the laptop's input devices to control the Mini. I'd just pick up some combo keyboard/mouse that catches your eye instead.

 

Couldn't you use something like Synergy?

http://lifehacker.com/254648/how-to-control-multiple-computers-with-a-single-keyboard-and-mouse


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

It's a terrible terrible solution but you can use team viewer or logmein free to remotely connect to Mac OS. This requires you have an OS installed on the laptop and that it is running whilst the screen is used for hdmi input.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

Synergy is a more effective approach to controlling a computer on the same network though it is far from 100%. LogMeIn or TeamViewer is going to create a connection from the Mini to their servers and back to your laptop. Hardly efficient, and very slow if you plan on doing any multimedia tasks.

 

I did say it was a terrible terrible solution

Synergy looks to be the way to go!

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

Doesn't seem like a good idea to me as well.

Much unneeded lost productivity.

 

Hi all,

Thank you very much for your suggestions,

Logmein is something I considered, but was hoping there would be an easier solution than that.

Synergy seems at the moment to be the best solution, its new to me, so playing around with that now...

So... In theory I could connect my PC and MAC together via an ethernet cable, set them up with a static IP, and then... even if I am out in the wilderness away from any local networks, I simply connect the two via an HDMI cable and an ethernet cable, press a hotkey, and.... hey presto! my alienware PC is displaying the Mac Minis desktop and its keyboard and mouse are working with the mac as well.

Does that sound about right?

Does anyone see any issues in doing this? is it do-able in this way?


Really appreciate your input guys, thanks very much!