External display switch

[blodwyn]

I'm using my PB at work with an external display, that belongs to a PC that I use a couple of times a week for a short time.

At the moment I unplug the external display and connect it to the PC, do my thing and then reconnect to the PB. I'm considering getting a KVM switch to switch the display (i.e. just the V, not the K or M), but I'm wondering what happens to the PB windows on the external display (if anything) when I switch the monitor over to the PC. Does anyone know whether

a) The PB thinks the external screen is still connected and therefore does nothing, or
b) The PB senses the display has disappeared and moves the open windows on to the main PB display

Thanks in advance

[mklos]

Quick question to you...

Do you use the external display to mirror the desktop from your PB to the external display, OR to extend the desktop on your PB over to the external display?

If you just use it to mirror the image off the PB to the external display then you shouldn't have any problems using a KVM switch. If you use it to extended the desktop to the external display then I'm not sure about that as I don't have a Mac laptop capable of extending the desktop on a display. It will only mirror and the hack doesn't apply to my iBook.

I'm quite sure that the Mac in smart enough to detect that the display is now gone and will automatically switch back. These are the kinds of things that Mac OS X are really good at.

If you can find a USB KVM Switch and have USB with your PC then you can use the whole KVM switch for both the PC and your PB. Just a suggestion there. Some people don't like typing on laptop keyboards and don't like trackpads.

[robbieduncan]

I sometimes connect my PB to my KVM at home. The KVM I have (a Belkin Pro2) acts like most other electronic KVMs and emulates the display an input devices so as all devices connected to the KVM think that they are connected to the display, mouse and keyboard.

What this means is that when you switch to a different KVM port the PB will still think that the display is attached and all windows on the external display will stay there.

p.s. To the poster above me (can't see your post on edit mode) can you limit your signature to something reasonable, say 3 lines at most. It takes up half a screen at the moment!

[blodwyn]

Thanks for the replies. I use my external display for screen spanning so I'll just have to get into the habit of dragging any windows I might want to use onto my PB screen before I switch over.