Multiplicity cannot switch back to primary computer via shortcut key.

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. I have forwarded your problem/question to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience.

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Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

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sdrohan

Join Date 10/2012

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It likely that Windows already reserves Ctrl + Q. As a test, change the action to one of your side mouse buttons or a more elaborate key combo (Ctrl + Shift + Q for example).

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

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Hi Sean,

after changing to Ctrl + Shift + Q, the issue still persists.

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sdrohan

Join Date 10/2012

+731

If you try any other 3 key combo, does it work? I have tested this, Ctrl + Shift + F10 and it works

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

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Unfortunately for me, Ctrl + Shift + F10 still doesn't work!

No matter what shortcuts you set, you can't move the mouse from the "slave computer" to the "master computer". A simple shortcut will allow you to move the mouse from the "master computer" to the "slave computer".

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I'm having the same issue - I had no trouble setting up CTL+ALT+Q for the primary computer, and CTL+ALT+W for the secondary. In testing, it worked like magic, CTL+ALT+W instantly changed my screen! But trying CTL+ALT+Q to return to the primary did absolutely nothing, and the only way I could escape the secondary was to shut it down.

A secondary error seems to be that each PC is in HDR mode, and their HDRs stack or something, with the final output when I'm on the secondary PC being REALLY bright and washed-out. But that's an issue for another day, and I can live with it. The "stuck on secondary" bug is totally a deal-breaker, though. If this isn't fixable, the software is basically unusable.

Any thoughts?

::edit:: I ALSO can escape the secondary computer by closing Multiplicity in the system tray. At least it saves me from rebooting the PC

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I also found that there's no "sidebar" option on the secondary computer - if that feature existed, presumably it would allow for switching. Or having a "select your system" option as a right-click context menu in the system tray icon... is there really no way to switch back if you haven't pre-configured a hotkey (or one that works?)?

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Quoting tpiatek360,

reply 6

I'm having the same issue - I had no trouble setting up CTL+ALT+Q for the primary computer, and CTL+ALT+W for the secondary. In testing, it worked like magic, CTL+ALT+W instantly changed my screen! But trying CTL+ALT+Q to return to the primary did absolutely nothing, and the only way I could escape the secondary was to shut it down.

A secondary error seems to be that each PC is in HDR mode, and their HDRs stack or something, with the final output when I'm on the secondary PC being REALLY bright and washed-out. But that's an issue for another day, and I can live with it. The "stuck on secondary" bug is totally a deal-breaker, though. If this isn't fixable, the software is basically unusable.

Any thoughts?

Quoting tpiatek360,

reply 7

I also found that there's no "sidebar" option on the secondary computer - if that feature existed, presumably it would allow for switching. Or having a "select your system" option as a right-click context menu in the system tray icon... is there really no way to switch back if you haven't pre-configured a hotkey (or one that works?)?

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. I have forwarded your problem/question to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

+1

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Roger wilco, thanks!

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sdRohan

Join Date 10/2012

+731

1st, I would like to know that you are working with Multiplicity 4 (MP4) and not MP3.

Quoting tpiatek360,

reply 6

I'm having the same issue - I had no trouble setting up CTL+ALT+Q for the primary computer, and CTL+ALT+W for the secondary. In testing, it worked like magic, CTL+ALT+W instantly changed my screen! But trying CTL+ALT+Q to return to the primary did absolutely nothing, and the only way I could escape the secondary was to shut it down.

I want to be clear on something.

Hotkeys are for Seamless connections only. What is confusing me in what you said:

'CTL+ALT+W instantly changed my screen!'

If you were talking about Seamless, I would have expected, 'Using CTRL + Alt + W moved my cursor from the Primary PC to the Secondary PC'. Is that what you mean there..?

What I suspect you mean is that you were able to get to the KVM remote with it like this with that key combo:

What will not work (again, because its a KVM connection) is a hot key combo to go back to the Primary. The reason being is that any key combo is received by the Secondary while KVM'd to it - there is no understanding of a Primary while in a KVM connection (at least not like it is with a Seamless connection).

Could it be made to work? Could a key combo be set up so that it understand that assignment to 'Primary Computer' could switch to the Primary under KVM conditions (like it does for Seamless connections)? That I will have to discuss with the developers. That said, it would take an update for that to happen - meaning, its not 'broke' now, it just doesn't function like you think it does (again, if you are expecting it to work for KVM connections).

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

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Hi, thanks for your reply!

Ok, first of all, yes, Multiplicity 4. Just installed yesterday off the latest download available.

OK, I must not have understood what Multiplicity did correctly - I have a physical KVM and I use it to switch from PC1 to PC2. Each time I switch, the monitor, keyboard, and mouse all physically disconnect from one and connect to the other. I didn't want "seamless" mode since I don't have multiple monitors.

Regarding what you showed - yes, that's the exact place I created a keyboard shortcut - specifically, to go to the secondary computer, and another shortcut to go to the primary.

So do I understand that there's no actual replication of the KVM device possible with Multiplicity 4? IOW, it works as an "extender" or "input" sharing app only? I'm sorry if I'm not understanding what I need to do, or what Multiplicity is designed for.

I really appreciate your response, and look forward to your reply.

--Tim

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sdRohan

Join Date 10/2012

+731

Quoting tpiatek360,

reply 11

Hi, thanks for your reply!

Ok, first of all, yes, Multiplicity 4. Just installed yesterday off the latest download available.

OK, I must not have understood what Multiplicity did correctly - I have a physical KVM and I use it to switch from PC1 to PC2. Each time I switch, the monitor, keyboard, and mouse all physically disconnect from one and connect to the other. I didn't want "seamless" mode since I don't have multiple monitors.

Regarding what you showed - yes, that's the exact place I created a keyboard shortcut - specifically, to go to the secondary computer, and another shortcut to go to the primary.

So do I understand that there's no actual replication of the KVM device possible with Multiplicity 4? IOW, it works as an "extender" or "input" sharing app only? I'm sorry if I'm not understanding what I need to do, or what Multiplicity is designed for.

I really appreciate your response, and look forward to your reply.

--Tim

Its not uncommon for clients coming from a hardware solution to MP and having some some muscle memory that does not match.

I am not passing this off but since we have seen your situation enough times, we 'have a doc for that'

https://support.stardock.com/space/SHC/1287815196/Multiplicity+Seamless+vs+KVM+confusion

If you still have questions after (and you very likely may), I would be happy to answer them here.

The very short answer:

KVM connections are like Remote Destkop in Windows (and can connect to a headless PC)
Seamless connections, you need to be able to see all the monitors on both PCs and the mouse moves among them as if they were all connected to a single PC.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

+1

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I'll dive into the doc and get back with any questions! Thanks a million! So basically it sounds like if I can "kill" the KVM connection somehow, I can get back to the main PC. I'll look into it.

Thanks again!

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OK, I think I understand now - once you KVM to another PC, there's no way to get back without closing the app. Also the little bug about monitor brightness stacking (HDR+HDR making everything super washed-out), but that's another issue.

So the ONLY native way to get back in the app (meaning without closing Multiplicity or restarting it) is to use the sidebar? I was hoping to avoid adding a new bar. Sounds like I could create a macro that would kill Multiplicity to boot me back to the main PC, restart Multiplicity, and then I could re-login when I want later. If there was a way to isolate a single USB device to retain it on the host I could use a button to toggle between devices, which would be super.

I'll keep playing around with it.

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sdRohan

Join Date 10/2012

+731

Quoting tpiatek360,

reply 13

I'll dive into the doc and get back with any questions! Thanks a million! So basically it sounds like if I can "kill" the KVM connection somehow, I can get back to the main PC. I'll look into it.

Quoting tpiatek360,

reply 14

OK, I think I understand now - once you KVM to another PC, there's no way to get back without closing the app.

No, you can Window the connection and work with it as you would any other running app. Please see:

https://support.stardock.com/space/SHC/1380286564/Using+KVM+Mode

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

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Interesting. It doesn't "window" for me - I'll have to look into how to make that happen. On my PC, when I open the KVM window, select the PC I want to use, it instantly full-screens and captures the screen, forwarding everything to the secondary system.

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OK, I got it working to an acceptable degree - basically, for anyone who wants to know, once you click connect under KVM, QUICKLY, and I mean QUICKLY open a new window so the first one can't capture you in full-screen. Then you should be able to click the settings at the top of the KVM window and tell it NOT to default to full-screen, so you don't get trapped.

IF there's another way out other than closing the app from the machine you get locked into, I don't know it. The sidebar from the main PC disappears, and doesn't pop back up.

Not ideal, but I can at least use the app now, even though it's not exactly seamless.

Has anybody figured out how to fix the video, though? The secondary PC is SUPER, SUPER washed out and almost unusable - I imagine it's something to do with both PCs being in HDR mode, but both PCs look perfect through an (actual) KVM, but the secondar machine looks super-bright and washed out through Multiplicity.

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You should have found the settings bar showed if your mouse to the top of the screen and paused it for a short time.

It is odd as full screen is not the default for KVM either.

Regarding HDR, we do not support HDR but I would have expected it to have been removed during capture. Is it possible you have an auto HDR mode enabled on the primary which is incorrectly interpreting the data as HDR?

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Regarding the HDR, anything's possible - I have no idea what I could do other than disable it on both PCs just to be safe, and that's a minor irritation, but doable if I have to.

I'll play around and see if I can get the menu bar to pop up - I never expected it to be there, but then, I thought a key-combo would be able to switch PC, so I'm not really on top of things. I WAS able to make some basic use of the software once I disabled full-screen mode as default (maybe something I did before I logged into the secondary PC for the first time?), so that's progress. It's still not nearly as useful as my actual hardware KVM (I was mainly hoping to avoid wear and tear on the buttons, constant dropping and connecting to USB devices, etc.), but it's better than nothing. Personally, I think upgrading my secondary PC to Windows Pro might be the solution for me, so I can just RDP in from the primary.

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