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britboyj

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 8, 2009
823
1,107
Hi everyone!

I have a... weird question.

I got married recently and was given a Hengedock for my MacBook Pro by my boss, amongst other things. It's awesome and I love it, but I have an iMac at home I want to use it with.

MacBook Pro is Thunderbolt, iMac is Thunderbolt. Before I dump $50 into a single cable, when the MBP is plugged in, can I 'switch' the iMac between target display and self-display with a keyboard stroke, or do I have to undock the MBP?

In another vein - If I were to get a dedicated Thunderbolt display for the MBP at some point and connect the iMac to the display's additional Thunderbolt port... what happens? Is the spare TB port on the Display just an output?

Thoughts and comments appreciated!

Thanks!
 
Yes you can switch by keystroke. You just have to use the iMac's keyboard. It is command-F2 IIRC. You won't be able to use the iMac's iSight camera if that kind of thing is important to you.

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Also the spare port on the Thunderbolt display is input or daisy chain.

If you have multiple macs, IIRC, the first Mac to connect to it gets preference and the other one is ignored (unless it is is in Target Display or Target Disk mode).
 
Another question - Is anyone aware of an AppleScript that would shut down the MBP display when it's closed and plugged into an external monitor? Has to be one of the most annoying "features" of 10.7/10.8 for me.
 
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