How to share existing PC docking-station-like setup with Macbook Pro

Question

I currently have an HP Elitebook laptop which I plugin into an HP proprietary docking station. When the HP is "plugged in", I have instant access to;

• 2 monitors connected through various display adapters (at the moment; 1 display port, and 1 vga port, but other options are available)
• Several usb ports for peripherals, including a bluetooth keyboard and bluetooth mouse dongle
• Power for the HP laptop
• Ethernet Adapter

I just acquired a MacBookPro 14,3. I would love to be able to plug my MBP into this docking station and have instant access to all of the above. Obviously thats not possible (nor would the power supply be correct).

What is my next best option if;

• At a minimum, I want to be able to quickly and easily switch between using the monitors, mouse and keyboard, between the PC and MBP

I've tried screen sharing from the MBP, but its laggy, and I dont see a way to do dual screen (I'm using VNC viewer). I would prefer to avoid using a switch, given all the additional wires, but I'm guessing thats my next best option?

Answer 1

At a minimum, I want to be able to quickly and easily switch between using the monitors, mouse and keyboard, between the PC and MBP

You can't if your peripherals/accessories are plugged into this docking station.

The dock connects to the HP notebook via a proprietary connector. There's no way to connect anything but the supported notebooks to this dock.

The key here is to understand that the HP dock is not an "independent device." It's designed for convenience when wanting to use desktop peripherals (mouse,monitor,keyboard, LAN, etc.) with your notebook; consider it part of your HP notebook when docked.

To share devices, you need "something" that interfaces with the peripherals that can be connected to both machines.

Your only options are to:

• Ditch the dock and use a generic USB hub/dock and manually move the USB cable between computers
• Get a Bluetooth mouse/keyboard (like the Logitech MK850) that supports multiple devices (won't support video switching)
• Get a quality KVM switch that supports multiple monitors

Answer 2

Actually you should be able to keep the HP dock and just treat it as a generic PC workstation. You would do your switching between the dock and the monitors and other peripherals.

Since the HP does not have USB-C plugging a dock between the two computers will not work.

Note that USB-C cables support Thunderbolt-3 so a USB-C cable will work for monitors and other things. Don't confuse USB-C with USB-3, the latter looks like a standard USB connector (often blue on PCs) the former are much smaller connectors.

A lot of this is finding something that works for you and without getting our hands on the actual hardware it is going to be difficult for us to make a specific recommendation that will work in your use case. So this is mostly a "bombard you with info so you can find a solution that works for you." situation.

Also my earlier comment about RDP. I have noticed that if you run the Microsoft Mac RDP client to connect to a PC it is very fast, just like sitting in front of the PC. So if you leave the HP on but not connected to keyboard/monitors/etc (just network) you can access it from a Mac at pretty much full speed. Allowing you to just hook up the Mac to your monitors/etc and not worrying about all the hardware switching. And that is something that you can try now for free.