Do you have two or more computers either at home or at work? Increase your productivity by using them all at the same time without the hassle of a hardware switchbox (a.k.a. KVM).

Even if your computers run on different operating systems, Synergy enables you to access all of them from a single keyboard and mouse. The way it works is you run Synergy on all of your Windows, Linux or Mac computers. Then, define which computer is the master (the one on which you’ll be using the keyboard and mouse) and where the slaves are located (to the right, left, above, below the master). All the other computers talk to the master to receive your keystrokes and mouse movements.

How does Synergy know which computer you want to control? You just mouse over to it. That’s why you define the physical relationship of each slave relative to the master. For example, if you have a computer to the left of the master, when you move the mouse cursor past the left edge of the master’s desktop, it will show up at the right edge of the computer on the left as if it was all one big desktop. Thus, you can use all your computers at the same time. Even clipboard text is transferred between computers for simple cut-and-paste operations.

The only thing you can’t do with Synergy is move an application from one computer to another. Each computer is still a separate system. Synergy just enables you to control them all from one place.

Watch this CNET Insider’s Secrets video to see how Synergy works and how to set it up.