Operating multiples PCs in a single space has always been painful. All those keyboards, displays, and mice not only take up a considerable amount of space but moving from one to another can get messy, a situation that is exacerbated when all your input devices are wireless.

The classic solution to the situation was a KVM, basically a hardware switch that allowed the same Keyboard, Video, and Mouse to work with multiple computers. These devices did the job, but they were never fun to install and could lead to an incredible tangle of wiring. A free piece of Microsoft software could help relieve the need for such a clunky solution, though.

Microsoft‘s Mouse without Borders is a free application that lets people use a single mouse across multiple computers. That means the cursor will go from one computer to the next as if they were simply multiple displays hooked up to the same system. Files can be dragged and dropped from one machine to the next, and up to four computers can be connected at once. What’s more, the software removes the borders from your keyboard as well — so it too can be used on up to four systems — and it allows for copying and pasting across machines.

Mouse without Borders (which rolls off the tongue much better than Souris d’Ordinateur Sans Frontières) is a quick installation on a Windows 7 machine. After the standard agreements the program becomes an icon in the notification area which, when clicked, will get the process going. For the first computer you’ll be given a 10-character security code and the computer’s name, then you just need to install the program on other machines on your network and put in that security code and computer name. This will link the systems and enable sharing. Aside from the aforementioned features MwB can get screen captures from other computers, send screen captures, and (for no reason in particular) personalize your login screen by adding Bing.com or local images. The key to all this is a simple setup, which the program clearly has.

The 1.1MB (Windows-only) application was developed by Truong Do, an engineer that works for Microsoft Dynamics. Clearly not part of his normal work, MwB is part of The Garage, an idea incubator where any Microsoft employee can take a thought and make it a reality. It’s a bit like Google’s 20% time, though it’s actually a physical place on the Microsoft campus.

As cool as MwB happens to be, it’s not the first of its kind — free and open source Synergy has been doing this for some time. It enables the sharing of a keyboard, mouse, and clipboard across Windows, OS X, and Linux systems. While free and powerful, it’s not nearly as easy to setup as Microsoft’s new offering.

Download Mouse Without Borders from Technet, via Geek.com