Two computers, one display

I have moved on from the BBC B but I think I'll stick with MS.

No. Way outside my skill set!

Bear in mind the idea is to retain the use of the W7 PC to avoid transferring data and continue use of some 32 bit software.

The Dell W11 is also a desktop device but much smaller and lives on a shelf over my desk.

I haven't used Anydesk, but Teamviewer is easy to set up.

I also use RealVNC to control my Pi. It's also easy to set up.

Okay. Plug the monitor into the Dell, and control the W7 machine from that.

You can run virtualBox machines on that too.

Even more food for thought!

I'm a bit twitchy about increasing opportunities for outside access.

I was 15 when I first read 1984. We seem to be heading that way through choice of convenience.

In that case, I can recommend Aten for KVMs.

Yeah, I have a VirtualBox one, but it's only fired up for software testing, otherwise off.

Some monitors (Dell for starters) include USB KVM functionality, so if you can find a monitor that handles whatever combination of VGA/DVI/HDMI/DP you computers have, that may be worthwhile?

There are a couple of KVMs lurking here which you could have for the price of postage, but they're not small, so probably don't fit your goal of freeing up desk space?

Not just the space. It's also the Rats nest of cables. Some form of permanent solution will allow this to be tidied sensibly.

Thanks for the offer. I have a neighbour with much better skills than mine so the plan is to trepidate until he returns from holiday:-)

Yes, it's the diagonal, but unlike CRT TVs it's the whole viewable area - CRTs used to count the part of the tube you couldn't see behind the bezel.

Be aware that the diagonal also depends on the aspect ratio: a wider screen has a longer diagonal for the same given height. Your screen is 4:3 while most cheap monitors are 16:9, although fancier ones can be 16:10, 3:2 (squarer) or 21:9 (very widescreen).

By my numbers your 17" is 10.2" tall and 13.6" wide. For the same height a

Theo

Something nobody seems to have mentioned is the extra screen size with a new-ish monitor. I moved from a 1366x720 19" to a 1920x1080 22" and the generally improvement in usefulness was unexpectedly large. It doesn't sound like much. but it was much nicer to use, with both extra pixels and extra screen area.

Understood.

The 17 is actually 13.3" x 10.7" but you are close enough. I can find space for 16:9 if it means a better choice.

Thanks.

It was written about the BBC. An organisation that Orwell instinctively realised duplicated all the bureaucratic centralised and untouchable features of soviet style communism.

Whose purpose at that time (WWII) was not the dissemination of truth, but of propaganda

My solution is RDP, a.k.a remote desktop connection protocol.

My Windows 11 box can access all my Raspberry pi's, all my linux boxes and several other windows boxes.....

Not much good if you want to do gaming or video editing or watching youtube videos as the screen refresh is not as high

Should be doable depending on some match of compatible ports... (i.e. PS/2 or USB mouse / KB on both, and the same video port (i.e. VGA/HDMI/DVI/DP etc).

(I might even have something suitable in my spares box if you want?)

Yes - except it is the visible dimension and does not include an amount of tube that is hidden behind the bezel. (so you get more actual visible screen for your 24"!)

Not insurmountable - you can use a HDMI to VGA converter (cheap) to get VGA out of a more modern system (but you will reduce the video quality to VGA in the process.

Using a dual head x 4 ATEN DVI at the moment - probably the best I have used over the years - even shares a bunch of USB devices seamlessly.

(it was not cheap thought!)

Another option is just to enable remote desktop on one PC and control it remotely from the other. No need for it to have screen, keyboard or mouse at all. They would need to be on the same network though.