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 Post subject: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2017 4:18 pm 
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Anyone have any ideas as to free or cheap software that will allow the usage of two mice/keyboards independently with two mouse pointers?

So far I've found two but neither are viable. TeamPlayer will do it easily but I'm not about to pay ~$300.00/year for a subscription. PluralInput is free but does not seem to work with a unified receiver.

For those that may not know a unified receiver is a Logitech dongle that allows the wireless connection of up to six wireless devices with just one dongle.

The reason I wish to do this is that I have dual monitors which each have their own Taskbar but are not cloned. If I can come up with something two people would be able to effectively use the system at the same time without interfering with each other. Of course, on any system, I can connect multiple mice but, since there is only one pointer, this is not effective for what I want.

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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2017 8:04 pm 
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I've never known of any software solution for this, so you're already ahead of me with your findings. ;-)

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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2017 8:38 pm 
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sboots wrote:
I've never known of any software solution for this, so you're already ahead of me with your findings. ;-)

WELL just what kind of help is THAT!?!? :rofl2: :mrgreen:

Actually I found a link to Source Forge where this has become a new project. Unfortunately, for me, it is still in the planning stage and no code has yet been written.

I could probably get around this by using different virtual desktops on each monitor but don't really want to go in that direction.

Not really a big issue to me anyway; just something that I want to play with. ;)

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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 8:16 am 
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jaylach wrote:
WELL just what kind of help is THAT!?!? :rofl2: :mrgreen:


:-P

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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 3:33 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
The reason I wish to do this is that I have dual monitors which each have their own Taskbar but are not cloned. If I can come up with something two people would be able to effectively use the system at the same time without interfering with each other. Of course, on any system, I can connect multiple mice but, since there is only one pointer, this is not effective for what I want.

I'm not sure i understand what you're trying to achieve or why... why two people using the same system at the same time?


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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 4:31 pm 
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Rather than edit my post i'll make another post... i still can't help wondering what it is you're trying to achieve... i can't help thinking you might be looking at your problem the wrong way (i.e two mice)... dual monitor, taskbar, not cloned, one mouse... you'd like to control non-cloned taskbars on different pc's or monitors using a one mouse fits all sort of thing?

As a starter perhaps something like, it's old and doesn't support Win10 but may help in direction pointing (click on the Tips tab):
http://www.mediachance.com/free/multimon.htm

Or more current and appears to be reasonably priced?...

https://symless.com/synergy

Disclaimer: I'm not recommending either of the above, they are posted simply for research purposes.


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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 6:28 pm 
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Thanks for the links Doddie. :)

The main reason that I want to do this is to play. There would be one handy aspect for me though. I have a few games that 'trap' the mouse their own screen. With dual mice/pointers I could do something on the other screen without having to leave the games.

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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 6:48 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
Thanks for the links Doddie. :)

The main reason that I want to do this is to play. There would be one handy aspect for me though. I have a few games that 'trap' the mouse their own screen. With dual mice/pointers I could do something on the other screen without having to leave the games.


I'm still none the wiser about what it is exactly you want to do but that said i use WizMouse on my Win7 pc to 'capture' the screen the mouse icon is above... sadly afaik it doesn't support Win10...
http://antibody-software.com/web/softwa ... the-mouse/

I'm fairly sure there are options about what it is you want to achieve but without further explanation it's probably impossible to help point you in the right direction, that said, it is equally likely that what i think is in your mind is miles away from your thoughts .


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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 6:53 pm 
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In a nutshell what I'm after is to have two mice and two pointers that work independent of each other.

Yes there are available options to do this but, so far, I've only found two. One is WAY to expensive and the other will not work with a Logitech unified dongle.

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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 9:31 pm 
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Maybe you should find a job :)


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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 9:36 pm 
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dvair wrote:
Maybe you should find a job :)


Ha! :rofl2:

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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 10:04 pm 
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But I have a job. Since I get three paychecks a month (Social Security, Navy and Veterans Admin) I must have three jobs! :295:

Actually this is not that off the wall. Consider that I play several games some of which allow 2 players to go at the same time. These games can be controlled by keyboard, mouse or gamepad. Having two independent mice and pointers would even the playing field (pun intended :mrgreen: ). As it is one player would use one device and the other player another. The gamepad player would have an advantage over the mouse player. The mouse player would have an advantage over the keyboard player. Of course there are other combinations possible but no need to list. The point is that game play is slanted toward the player with the better device. If there could be two independent mice and pointers there would be no device advantage for either player.

Another advantage to having two mice and pointers happened just today. A friend in my apartments has his laptop out for repairs and needed to write up and print some stuff for a Veteran's Admin appointment. Of course I allowed him to use my system to do so. While he was working I watched TV. With two independent mice/keyboards we could have both done our stuff using one monitor each. Yes, both options I've seen allow multiple keyboards also. Would be a very limited advantage if they did not. Yes, of course I could have gone to my second desktop system or laptop but that is not the point. The point really is that I can connect multiple mice/keyboards yet cannot effectively use them. Personally I consider this to be a basic flaw in Windows. Why allow the connection of multiple devices if they cannot be used to an advantage?

LOL! As I'm sure that Steve can verify, and others have probably seen, there is the aspect that I don't tend to do thing in a 'normal' way. After all what is 'normal' other than 'average'? I don't like to be average in anything. ;)

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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2017 1:41 pm 
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dvair wrote:
Maybe you should find a job :)



I was just thinking that you have too much time on your hands.


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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2017 2:43 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
Another advantage to having two mice and pointers happened just today. A friend in my apartments has his laptop out for repairs and needed to write up and print some stuff for a Veteran's Admin appointment. Of course I allowed him to use my system to do so. While he was working I watched TV. With two independent mice/keyboards we could have both done our stuff using one monitor each. Yes, both options I've seen allow multiple keyboards also. Would be a very limited advantage if they did not. Yes, of course I could have gone to my second desktop system or laptop but that is not the point. The point really is that I can connect multiple mice/keyboards yet cannot effectively use them. Personally I consider this to be a basic flaw in Windows. Why allow the connection of multiple devices if they cannot be used to an advantage?

Somewhat surprisingly that was what i had in my mind you were trying to achieve but differs in that I've never tried to do that on a dual monitor setup, i have had multiple mice working independently on a single monitor setup back in the XP days... more by accident than by design, one was plugged into a USB port and the other the motherboard PS2 port... i forget which one but one of them was playing up so i connected the other to test if there was something other than a hardware fault, i forgot to remove what i thought was the faulty mouse and it was very odd and unexpected too see two mice icons on the same desktop but they both worked and could be used independently. (Yes one of them was faulty and subsequently replaced.)

As a [likely pointless, i no longer have access to a PS2 mouse] test i just plugged in a second USB mouse to my PC (Win7) and it doesn't display a second mouse icon, this leads me to believe that i only had two independently operating mice because they were using different input methods, i.e. 1 x USB & 1 x PS2.

If you don't have a PS2 mouse connector on your motherboard and have an empty PCI slot on your motherboard perhaps a PS2 controller card might help, giving you the option for a secondary type of mouse connection, something like this for example (not a recommendation, purely for illustration):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/PCI-USB-PS2-CO ... B003TX6932

That, if it worked, would just leave sorting out which monitor any launched software should open on.


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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2017 6:46 pm 
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Actually I was quite surprised that my new mother board does have a PS2 port. Will have to see if I can get my hands on a PS2 mouse. Did/do they make wireless PS2?

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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2017 9:03 pm 
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Well I searched Newegg and Tiger Direct for a wireless PS/2 mouse and came up empty. I did find a PS/2 to USB adaptor that I just ordered. I'll try plugging in a wireless mouse dongle in to the adaptor and will see what I see. The worst case is that it does nothing and I'm out 99 cents with free shipping. I think 99 cents is worth the attempt.

Since the system is about 8-9 feet from where I sit I really want to go wireless so am trying the cheapest method first with the adaptor. If the wireless dongle does not work I do happen to have a wired USB mouse laying around to try with the adaptor. If this works wired but not wireless it would still be workable as I'd just grab an extension cable. I already use an extension cable for my wired headset and gamepad. I keep telling myself that I should go wireless on both but really have no need as they both work just fine.

Thanks for the valuable insight Doddie! :) :urock:

<Edit>
Actually I have found a couple of wireless PS/2 mice on Amazon ranging from ~$24.00-$40.00. Since I already have a spare wireless and wired mouse I'm going to go with the attempt with the adaptor first. If this works with just a mouse I'll try adding a keyboard. While my main concern is just the dual mice a second keyboard would not hurt. I hope that the fact that my mother board PS/2 port is dual as to one port for both mouse and keyboard does not throw a wrench in the works. ;)

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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2017 10:16 pm 
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Just spend one of those 3 paychecks and get two touchscreens, that should really confuse Windows :)


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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2017 11:16 pm 
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dvair wrote:
Just spend one of those 3 paychecks and get two touchscreens, that should really confuse Windows :)

Sigh, that would be workable if I didn't sit 8-9 feet from the screens... :rofl2:

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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 2:42 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
dvair wrote:
Just spend one of those 3 paychecks and get two touchscreens, that should really confuse Windows :)

Sigh, that would be workable if I didn't sit 8-9 feet from the screens... :rofl2:

8ft selfie stick, remove phone/camera, replace with artificial finger.

cf.
https://www.movophoto.com/products/movo ... -boom-pole
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Severed-Sili ... 2616135492

Sorted ;) :rofl2:


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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:15 pm 
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False advertising on the selfie pole. Says it is 8 feet when it is actually 8.3333333 feet. ;)

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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:28 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
False advertising on the selfie pole. Says it is 8 feet when it is actually 8.3333333 feet. ;)

Henceforth you will be known as The Donald! :rofl2:


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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 7:05 pm 
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Oh well, only wasted 99 cents. I ordered the wrong adaptor. I just have a single 'combo' PS2 plug on my system that handles both a mouse and keyboard through the one plug. The adaptor I ordered is for a standard PS2 port where there would be two plugs. It won't even fit in the socket.

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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2018 4:54 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
Oh well, only wasted 99 cents. I ordered the wrong adaptor. I just have a single 'combo' PS2 plug on my system that handles both a mouse and keyboard through the one plug. The adaptor I ordered is for a standard PS2 port where there would be two plugs. It won't even fit in the socket.

HAHA, bet your not feeling so smug about pointing out the false advertising on the length of the selfie pole i suggested now are you! :rofl2:

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False advertising on the selfie pole. Says it is 8 feet when it is actually 8.3333333 feet. ;)


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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2018 5:36 pm 
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No false advertising here. What I got was exactly what was described. This one was totally my fault. ;) I still may end up going with the pole though as I'm not seeing the adaptor I actually need. Might be time for Amazon and possibly even (gag) eBay.

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 Post subject: Re: Dual mice
 Post Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2018 5:47 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
...and possibly even (gag) eBay.

I used to use ebay quite a bit, I'm not really sure why it fell out of favour with me, i suspect it stopped being a good source for good deals, that is, years ago it used to be a good source to pick up items for a fraction of the price the OEM's were selling them for, i can't say that's true any more.

One thing i will say for ebay/paypal though is after buying something in the run up to Christmas that wasn't shipped by the seller (the clue was in the tracking number they supplied), ebay are far more proactive in getting a buyers refund than they used to be.

I suspect that may be down to legislation on this side of the pond though so ymmv on your side.


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