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Mouse Without Borders Setup/User Guide, Tips, Tricks and FAQs

Mouse w/o Borders (http://www.aka.ms/mm) makes you the captain of your computer fleet by allowing you to control up to 4 computers from a single mouse and keyboard. This means that with Mouse w/o Borders you can drag and drop or copy and paste text, screen capture and file across computers.

Mouse Without Borders is available from Microsoft Download with millions of downloads as seen on Microsoft Garage Wall Of Fame, Google, Bing, Twitter, Seattle Times, CNet, TechNet, Channel 9, TechCrunch, Engadget, PCMag, YouTube

Would you want to have an incredible mouse that can seamlessly move from one machine to another?
Would you want to get rid of the KVM and be more productive working with multiple machines?

If you are new to the idea of using a single set of mouse and keyboard to work with multiple machines or if you are having more or less troubles while using other software/hardware KVM then you really wanted to give Mouse Without Borders a try. The first impression of a new user is “It is incredible! It is impossible!”

Mouse Without Borders runs on all versions of Windows (WIN7/WIN8/WIN10/2016, X86 or AMD64)

Setup

After install Mouse without Borders, you will see a Setup dialog. You can also bring up this dialog anytime by clicking on the Mouse without Borders system tray icon on the taskbar.
In the first machine, click NO on the first dialog. It will bring you to the second dialog where you see the security code and computer name. Keep the dialog open and go to the second computer.
In the second machine, click YES to the first dialog then enter the information that you got from the first computer.
Click LINK to link the two computers, after the computers get connected you can simply move the mouse cursor from one machine to the other passing the screen edge, keyboard input follows your mouse cursor to the other computers as well.
After setting up your computers, you can bring up the Settings form by clicking on Mouse without Borders system tray icon or using the hot key Ctrl+Alt+M. Here you can add more computers, drag/drop computer thumbnails to setup their position and change other options.

More information on setup/configuration:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mouse+without+borders

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3258833/peripherals/hands-on-how-one-mouse-can-control-multiple-pcs-with-microsofts-mouse-without-borders-app.html

Note: If you have a previous version installed in your computer, you can upgrade to the latest version by running this command (instead of uninstalling/reintalling):

msiexec /i "full path to the downloaded MouseWithoutBordersSetup.msi" REINSTALLMODE=vamus REINSTALL=ALL

Beta version

For more information about the prerelease of the app, please go to https://aka.ms/mmbeta.

Main features

Control multiple computers seamlessly using a single mouse and keyboard
Peer-to-peer system: Any machine can be a master machine
Multiple mode: Keyboard/mouse repeat in all machines
Shared clipboard: copy text/image/screenshot from one machine and paste to other machines
Drag/drop file across machines
Selective screen capture (Ctrl+Shift+S)
Support on logon/UAC desktop

Known issues/limitation

Copy/Paste between machines only works with a single file and the size limit is 100MB.
Drag/Drop between machines works with single file only and it does not work with network file.
Copy/Paste, Drag/Drop do not work with folder and multiple files, the workaround is to zip them first.
If the host machine has a full-screen focused Remote Desktop/virtual machine window (or some kind of simulator window), the keyboard might not follow the mouse to the slaver machine. The workaround is to enable the option "Hide mouse at screen edge" on the Settings form or switch the focus to another window first.
In Windows 8 & up, the mouse pointer might be invisible if there is no physical mouse attached to the machine. Plug in an unused mouse or turn on Mouse Keys in Control Panel.
Some users mentioned having the KeysNotMatched error when reinstalling the app in one machine even typing in the same key. Restarting the app in both machines would help.
After changing the Display's Scale (DPI) in Display settings, the app's Settings form's UI may be broken, some labels/textboxes may be overlapped by others. To resolve this, sign out and sign in of Windows again. In some versions of Windows, restarting an app is not enough but you would have to start a new Window session after changing the Display's Scale.

Tips, tricks and FAQs

Lock/Unlock all machines at once

Hit Ctrl+Alt+L twice to lock all machines. NOTE: If you use a Polish keyboard, Alt+L (to show up the 'ł' letter) would be eaten up in the remote machine so you would better change this hotkey to something else:)

To unlock all machines, first switch to multiple mode (default hotkey is hitting Ctrl 3 times fast) then keyboard will repeat in all machines.

Ctrl+Alt+Del in the remote machine

This is supported in Windows 7 and newer versions of Windows. Please follow these steps in every machine, this needs to be done once per machine:

1. Enable SAS to allow the Services:
a. Run gpedit.msc (Edit group policy)
b. Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Logon Options > Disable or enable software Secure Attention Sequence, select Services in the Dropdown box.

From now on you can use Ctrl+Alt+End is to simulate the CAD in the slave machine.

Full-screen app/game: losing focus when switching machine

If you experience this issue. unchecking the option "Hide mouse at screen edge" would help.

Keyboard does not work in the remote machine when using full-screen Remote Desktop client in the controller machine

Some full-screen apps would eat all key strokes so the option "Hide mouse at screen edge" mentioned above should be checked to work around this scenario.

Mouse Lag

If you use the app with a wireless connection in a busy network, you may experience mouse lag. A wired connection is recommended.

Mouse move speed in remote machine is faster or different between vertical and horizontal directions

This may caused by having multiple monitors in the remote machine. Checking the option "Move mouse relatively" would help.

Mouse button swap is not preserved in the remote machine

In case you change the primary mouse button in Windows Settings, mouse data sent over the network is already reverted. So you should not change the primary button in the remote machine. In case the Settings are sync'd, you may want to turn the "Syncs your settings" off in Windows Settings.

App no longer connects when VPN is enabled

Some users have experienced an issue where the app no longer connects via the local network like a home network when VPN is enabled (like a VPN for work). In this case, most likely the local DNS stops working when the VPN is enabled. The workaround is to use the IP address mapping option on the app's Settings form to resolve the IP address of the local remote machine. The remote machine name should still be used in the Machine Matrix to connect. The IP mapping option is then used by the app to resolve the remote machine to its IP address.

Understand mouse switching experience with multiple monitors

For simplicity, in a multiple-monitor system, all monitors are treated like a single screen boundary containing all the monitor. For example: From a machine with multiple monitors, if you want to move the mouse to another machine on the right, you would have to do it from the most-right monitor - the one has the right edge at the most right. To change how the monitors are positioned, drag and move each monitor in Display Settings.

Disable/Enable startup with Windows

To disable the app from automatic startup when Windows starts, run this in the command line window: sc config MouseWithoutBordersSvc start=demand

(You can also do that in the Windows Service Manager (services.msc))

To enable the app to startup automatically: sc config MouseWithoutBordersSvc start=auto

Add a hotkey to start/stop the app (enable/disable app)

Windows does support this for any app, you just need to create a desktop shortcut to the app ("C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Garage\Mouse without Borders\MouseWithoutBorders.exe") then you can configure a hotkey for the shortcut :

In the shortcut Properties' dialog, go to the Shortcut tab
Set focus on the Shortcut key value.
Type any key to set a desired hotkey, for ex.: type M to set the hotkey to Ctrl+Alt+M
Click OK or Apply.

The default hotkey to exit the app is Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Q and you can change that in the app's Settings.

You can now use Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Q to exit/disable the app and Ctrl+Alt+M to start/enable the app.

Firewall Settings for Mouse Without Borders

(optional: How to disable the app on a specific network).

Mouse without Borders setup automatically adds itself to the Windows Firewall allowed program list. But few users found these steps helpful in some cases to allow and customize the tool through Windows Firewall:

1. Hit Windows + R to open the Run dialog.
2. Type in WF.msc and hit enter to open Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.
3. Select Inbound Rules on the right tree.
4. Click on the New Rule... in the Actions list on the left.
5. Select Program option and click next.
6. Browse to select Mouse without Borders application (%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Garage\Mouse without Borders\MouseWithoutBorders.exe) and click Next.(In X64 machine the path should be %ProgramFiles(X86)%\Microsoft Garage\Mouse without Borders\MouseWithoutBorders.exe)
7. Select Allow the connection and click Next.
8. Select all options for “When does this rule apply?” and click Next.
9. Enter the name for the rule and click Finish.
10. The rule should now show up in the list, you can double click on it to view details and make change.
11. Restart Mouse without Borders.

* If you have multiple network interfaces, wired and wireless, you can also customize to allow the application on the type of interface in step 11 above – In Advanced tab, click on Customize. Mostly you would always want to allow the application through the Local area network. You may need to create both Inbound and Outbound rules to block the app on a specific network interface (wireless for example).

Skip .Net check when installing the app (or manually install the app)

The installer checks your system to make sure you have a required .Net version 4 before installing. Few users have reported that the installation is blocked even the .Net version is already installed. Some registry key is probably corrupted in this case, to work around this you can run the installer without UI option: msiexec /i MouseWithoutBordersSetup.msi /qn

You can also manually install the app using these steps:

Create a folder C:\MM
Download the file MouseWithoutBordersSetup.msi to that folder.
In an elevated cmd windows (run as Admin), run the following commands:
- msiexec /a "C:\MM\MouseWithoutBordersSetup.msi" /qb TARGETDIR="C:\MM\Bin" /l*v "C:\MM\Install.Log"
- sc create MouseWithoutBordersSvc binPath= "C:\MM\Bin\Microsoft Garage\Mouse without Borders\MouseWithoutBordersSvc.exe" start= auto DisplayName= "Mouse Without Borders Service"
Manually add the program (C:\MM\Bin\Microsoft Garage\Mouse without Borders\MouseWithoutBorders.exe) to the firewall exception list (allow it through firewall).
You can now create a desktop shortcut to "C:\MM\Bin\Microsoft Garage\Mouse without Borders\MouseWithoutBorders.exe"

Troubleshooting share clipboard issue

(Applicable to version 2.1.7.1212 and up released in 2017)

(Note: Windows 10 now comes with Cloud Clipboard, you can also use that as an alternative)

A good number of users have reported that clipboard sharing may stop at a time and they would need to do something to bring it back like restarting the app, reconnect (Ctrl+Alt+R), click Apply on the Settings form. Just in case you want to find out why it stops working in your environment, here is how it works and how to look at the local log:

Clipboard monitoring is done by the helper process MouseWithoutBordersHelper.exe so you want to make sure this process is running and MouseWithoutBorders can talk to it (the mini log should has a line like Helper:<APositiveNumber>, and a full log should have this line: Trace: Clipboard monitor method AddClipboardFormatListener is used.)
When a text is copied, there should be a blinking blue dot on the app system tray icon: and looking at the full log you can find something like
- [258] = 12/19 15:43:17.236(15)FROM HELPER: GetClipboardText: TXT = 79, RTF = 0, HTM = 0.
  [259] = 12/19 15:43:17.236(15)CheckClipboardEx: ShareClipboard = True, data = String.
  [262] = 12/19 15:43:17.236(15)Plain/Zip = 240/153
  [263] = 12/19 15:43:17.236(15)SetToggleIcon: 2
- which tells that a text was placed into the system clipboard at 15:43:17 and the app's ShareClipboard option is On. (Btw you can get the full log by click on Generate log in the app's system tray context menu).
The text is then sent to other machines and you would also see a blue blinking dot like above in other machines telling that they got the text. You would see some lines like this in the full log of the app running in other machines:
- [4007] = 12/19 15:43:17.296(43)0.08KB of TXT <-
  [4008] = 12/19 15:43:17.296(72)0.08KB of TXT <-
  [4009] = 12/19 15:43:17.296(43)SetToggleIcon: 2
The app uses the Clipboard.GetText and similar APIs to access the system clipboard which may also be used by other apps running in your machines. If multiple apps access the clipboard concurrently it may cause an error, we work around that by retrying for a few times. If a large image is in the clipboard, retrying may not help in a slow machine and you would see this line in the full log: Requested Clipboard operation did not succeed.

Change the TCP port that the app listens on

Mouse Without Borders listens on ports 15100 and 15101 by default. If you get an error on port conflict. There is probably another app running in the machine using the same ports. To see which program is using those same ports, you can run these commands in the cmd window:

netstat -nao | find "15100"

netstat -nao | find "15101"

The last column of the console output from the commands above are the process ids, you can then look up for the process name from Task Manager.

To avoid the port conflict, you can either configure the other app or Mouse Without Borders to use different ports.

To configure Mouse Without Borders to listen on different ports (for ex. port 12345), follow these steps in all machines:

Download psexec and save it locally -https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/psexec
Run the following command in an Admin/elevated cmd window: psexec -i -s reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\MouseWithoutBorders /v TcpPort /t REG_DWORD /d 12345 /f
Restart Mouse Without Borders

Personalize logon screen using local pictures

(Note: Windows 10 now comes with various beautiful Themes including Bing Wallpaper (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/bing-wallpaper) so this feature is being deprecated.)

1. Create one folder named MouseWithoutBorders under \Windows\Web\ directory.
2. Drop your photos there (jpg only).
3. In a cmd windows, run del "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp\Low\MM.Local.Indexer.txt" then restart Mouse without Borders.

Why there is no longer an option to bind to a specific network

In versions released in 2018 or later, the option to bind to a specific network is removed. Instead, the app connects using the right network automatically. The concept of network interface/adapter is too advanced to a normal user, so we keep changing to give the best experience as possible.

Advanced users who still want to block the app via a specific network can still do so by blocking the app in Windows firewall on a specific network, see the last note in "Firewall Settings for Mouse Without Borders" above.

Discussions/Posts in other languages

マウス / キーボードを、複数のパソコン間で共有する!

Mouse without Borders: Vier PCs, ein

Utilize vários computadores com apenas um mouse e um teclado!

Mouse Without Borders : une souris pour plusieurs PC

讓滑鼠破「窗」而出的免費 Microsoft KVM 程式

 Un mouse una tastiera per 4 PC: ordine sulla scrivania

Mouse without Borders – управляем четырьмя ПК одной мышью и клавиатурой

Microsoft 복수의 PC의 마우스, 키보드를 LAN에서 공유가능하게 하는 Mouse without Borders 공개

Mouse Without Borders, kendalikan banyak komputer dengan satu mouse

Điều khiển nhiều máy tính với 1 chuột 1 bàn phím

Users love Mouse Without Borders

As you are reading this far, you probably have good reasons to try out the app ^.^! And here is an additional reason: Can you name a piece of software that has a lot of love from users as radom expressions longing for years on twitter:

Magic Mouse fun facts

The original name of the app was Magic Mouse where I named it when starting this little project in Jun 2008. The beta version was created in probably a week with total of 34 downloads.
According to statistics, the app has been downloaded by all 193 countries millions times. North Korea did make one completed download - guess who?:)
Japanese likes to share information about the app as many posts on Twitter are in Japanese.
Few users recognize that the app symbol (icon) does look like a mouse:) -
Quite a few users do not know that keyboard works with the app too:) that keyboard does follow mouse to the remote machine. We probably got the name wrong.
A good number of internal Microsoft folks thought the original developer of the project has gone from Microsoft as they checked the git history but I actually got my alias changed once. This is also my little longest project that I have been with.
The project is user-driven, users use it and keep sending feedback and asking for little things. Some did provide idea and fixes. This was the UI of the first version in 2008, pretty empty but surprisingly it works now in Windows 10 without recompilation: