ShareCentral 5
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The ShareCentral works very well for all the devices I tried, printers, scanner, hard drives, mouse and keyboards both separately and as a combined unit like the Logitech MX 5500 wireless mouse and keyboard. Using your mouse and keyboard between the two computers works well for situations just like mine where I use one computer as a work computer and the other for playing games and as my test setup.
I even tried out some audio solutions like a pair of USB headphones and had no problem switching back and forth with them as a regular USB device between the two computers. The switching takes a second or two and does work unless the device you are trying to switch is currently powered down. If your USB device such as a drive or printer is not on it will not switch so it is a good reminder to turn on the devices if they don’t seem to want to switch for you.
When using the ShareCentral I found that the setup kept cables at a minimum and you did not have to stretch things between the two computers as you could just centrally locate the ShareCentral between the two. I also set the ShareCentral so the switching lights pointed in the direction of the computer screen that was corresponding to that side. This kept things handy and easy to tell which computer had what device currently associated with it.
The ShareCentral can also be mounted using the included template and the screw holes on the bottom of the switch box for mounting the device on a wall or cubicle side. You can also use the little rubber cable manager if you want that attaches to the top or bottom to help hold cables.
The ShareCentral 5 USB switching works so easily and well that it really does help when you are trying to manage and handle more than one computer system with devices between the two. Printers and hard drives are especially nice with the ShareCentral so you don’t have to network them and have all the hassles of dealing with a shared network if you don’t want to.
I even had no problems with a more complex device in a TV Tuner from Plextor and switching between the two computers but had no problems. I wanted to check out something a little more on the unusual side and had no problems watching TV on either system using the ShareCentral to switch from one to the next.
The devices you switch and the system you are using will have something to do with the switching time and how quickly the devices are switched. I found that devices like mice and keyboards switch rather quickly but it may take a few seconds for devices like printers and scanners or like the TV tuner to switch.
I also found that using things that your computer sees as plug and play like mice and keyboards are recognized by the two computers I was using pretty quickly. Things like the TV tuner that I had already installed on both systems were recognized quickly and installed the first time I used them with the ShareCentral 5 but after that they simply connected without the installer coming up at all.
The Kensington ShareCentral 5 works very well and I had no problems with any of the USB devices I used with it, they all switch over just fine from one computer to the other in just a few seconds. I used a hard drive, CD/DVD drive, printer, scanner, mouse and keyboard, USB Headphones and even a TV tuner without any problems.
The ShareCentral 5 worked very well and you can also purchase a 2 port version from Kensington if you only have a few USB devices you want to share between two computers. I highly recommend the Kensington ShareCentral 5 as an effortless way to share USB devices between two computers.