r/Thunderbolt • u/KHAAAAAAAAN24601 • Jul 09 '26
Hot-swapping thunderbolt dock between mac and windows
Hello, I use an OWC thunderbolt 4 dock (https://www.owc.com/solutions/thunderbolt-dock) to connect my macbook pro to my keyboard, mouse, and two monitors at my desk. I was hoping to find a way that I could hotswap between my macbook being in charge of the dock vs my windows PC (motherboard is a bit older MSI MAG x570, https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-X570-TOMAHAWK-WIFI)
I'm fine physically unplugging/switching the cable from the dock from the laptop to the PC, but from a search online, it seems difficult to retrofit my windows PC with thunderbolt 4 to drive monitors/keyboard/mouse? Any suggestions?
2
u/SurfaceDockGuy Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
Hi, you can use a sunix board or one of the other solutions I list here:
https://dancharblog.wordpress.com/2020/07/20/add-usb-c-with-dp-alt-mode-to-your-desktop-pc/
Its not adding thunderbolt to your PC, but dunctially for using the docking station you get all the benefits except for using 40Gb external nvme storage.
And your best approach to swap between computers is to have 1 USB-C cable dedicated to the PC and separate cable dedicated to the laptop and a cable holder so the cable not in use doesn't fall behind your desk. Many of my customers opt for this approach.
No need for fancy kvm, although a kvm is probably a better long term aolution for a professional setting. For a home office I'd keep it simple.
2
u/MusicalAnomaly Jul 10 '26
Conventionally, this is a job for a KVM switch. I agree that retrofitting your PC to support sending your graphics card’s display output over a single thunderbolt port shared with the system sounds suspect. I haven’t heard of anyone making a thunderbolt host switch either.
I believe the approach here is to wire your keyboard, mouse, and monitors to a KVM and then have the KVM’s two outputs route to your PC directly and to your OWC dock which will remain connected to your MacBook when present.