Great desktop+laptop tools

Working with both desktop and laptop computer at work, I searched for some usefull utilities to help me sync data between them and to make my everyday work easier.

I’ve found everything I need, and the best of all – those apps are free.

First, I went looking for a tool that will sync folders between computers. I entered “sync computers” in Google, and the very first result was The app – Allway Sync. After download and installation I saw that everything I need this application can offer.

It is very easy to use, very fast and among other configurations it can also:

• sync when logoff
• sync when login (when apop started)
• sync every X minutes (also called – on file change)

This utility can also do a sync using the USB flash drive if you don’t have a network connection between computers.

Then I went looking for a hardware switch for my keyboard and mouse, but I found something even better – a utility that shares keyboard and mouse over the network!! And again – this one is also free.

The utility is called Synergy and does it’s job very good. All you have to do is install this utility on both computers and run on one as a server (on the one that has physicaly connected keyboad and mouse) and on other as client. As I saw, it can connect to a number of client computers and share with all of then your peripherals. It acts like you have multiple monitors on a computer, it can switch operating computer either by keyboard shortcut or even simplier if you move your mouse “outside” the screen to the other monitor/computer.

Synergy also supports clipboard share, so you simply make a Copy on one computer and then Paste on the other.

The is one more utility I would like to mention here, UltraMon with which you can easily move your window to another monitor (this one is for multiple monitor computers, not for desktop+laptop combinations).