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I have my Windows 10 PC and Mac from 2011 hooked up to a USB switcher (HERE) so I can work on both devices using only one keyboard.

I've noticed when switching from Mac to Windows 10, windows takes ~5 seconds to connect and bing when the internal USB switch, keyboard and mouse are recognized. I should note that all the devices together are recognized in < 1 second but it takes 5 seconds to recognized and bing for the first device after switching. When I swap back, the Mac recognizes my keyboard and mouse in < 1 second.

I'm not saying waiting 5 seconds for my keyboard to connect is the end of the world but < 1 second would make my workflow much quicker.

I tried all 12 different configurations of my switch port and nothing changes. I'm not finding much on google about speeding up windows but my guess is that this slow windows connection is characteristic of the switch itself.

Any guesses why windows 10 is slower connecting than a Mac?

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The problem is with the KVM reporting to both computers that the device was disconnected when switched.

Windows was since always slower than Linux in detecting new devices, which is what you are seeing.

Some types of KVM do not report disconnection, so each computer thinks it's still connected. This way, switching is immediate and no detection is involved (except for the first time).

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  • Very insightful thanks. Can I block/ignore the disconnect signal on windows? I assume the USB still will need to do some handshaking outside of the Windows machine so this wouldn't work but I thought the question wouldn't hurt.
    – TheDopplerEffect
    Commented Nov 20, 2020 at 4:45
  • I don't know of a way to make Windows ignore a disappearing USB device. You might need for that to get another KVM.
    – harrymc
    Commented Nov 20, 2020 at 7:08

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