KVM Switch for Dual Monitors with Laptop and PC

@Tiger Joe  As it happens, a friend of mine has this exact type of setup.  First, the most convenient option is to get a docking station for your laptop and then connect the outputs of the docking station to one "bank" of the KVM, and then connect your desktop to the other "bank".  If you skip the docking station, then you'll have to connect and disconnect multiple cables every time you want to take the laptop somewhere or bring it back.  And since dual display KVMs typically require displays that use the same type of output connector (e.g. both DisplayPort or both HDMI), getting a suitable dual display signal from the laptop directly to a KVM without a docking station can be tricky.

In terms of the details of the setup, my friend uses an IOGear GCS1942, link here.  It supports dual DisplayPort displays, both of which can be to 4K 60 Hz, as well as USB 3.0.  But as you'll see if you start shopping around, it isn't cheap.  But my friend has the Dell WD19TB dock for his laptop.  He connects the dock's two DisplayPort outputs to the two DisplayPort inputs of the first "bank" of the KVM.  And he also runs a USB 3.0 cable between the dock and KVM.  Then he connects his desktop's DisplayPort outputs and a USB 3.0 port to the second "bank" of the KVM.

Hopefully this helps.  If you need additional help, it would be useful to provide more details about the exact equipment you have, particularly the displays.  The setup options change depending on the resolutions of the displays involved and the inputs they have available.

@Tiger Joe  I forgot to mention that another important factor is the display outputs available from the desktop PC, which depend on the GPU installed.

Thanks jphughan this is exciting and neat that your friend solved a similar situation.  Yes, I see where having the laptop dock station is the way to go to quickly unplug just like I did prior to working from home.  Here is a picture of my Inspiron outputs from the back there is also two USBs on the front.  I also include a picture of the HP Monitor.

Hope this helps

@Tiger Joe  Happy to help.  So your Inspiron desktop doesn't have a graphics card with additional display outputs poking out of a bracket higher up on the rear of the chassis, above that block of motherboard I/O connectors that you included in your photo?  If not, then unfortunately that's not going to be a good system to use with a dual display KVMs.  That photo shows that you have a single VGA port and a single HDMI port.  All of the dual display KVMs I've seen have been designed to use a single video connector type across all inputs and outputs, typically HDMI or DisplayPort.  I suppose you could get an active VGA to HDMI converter in order to have that VGA output on your desktop feed an HDMI input on a KVM, but then you'd need a dual HDMI KVM, and those seem to be less common than dual DisplayPort KVMs.  And then your display has DisplayPort, VGA, and DVI inputs.

If you really wanted to do this with your current equipment, I'd suggest looking for a dual display KVM that uses HDMI inputs and outputs.  Make sure it supports displays up to whatever resolution you'd need (or might want for futureproofing), since different revisions of HDMI support different display resolutions.  Then for your desktop you'd use an HDMI cable plus a VGA to HDMI adapter to connect to the HDMI inputs on one "bank" of the KVM.  (For the VGA to HDMI adapter, make sure you get one designed to connect a VGA source to an HDMI input, because there are also adapters designed to connect an HDMI source to a VGA input. Those two types of adapters are not interchangeable.)  And then for your docking station, if you get a dock that has at least a DisplayPort and HDMI output, you can connect the former to your HDMI KVM using a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter/cable.

But if you'd be open to upgrading any of your equipment anyway, I would think about using this KVM idea as justification for taking the plunge.  Because I'd really recommend getting a DisplayPort-based KVM.  Your display already has a DisplayPort input, so you're good to go there.  And a docking station with dual DisplayPort outputs isn't difficult to find at all.  Dell's own WD19 dock family models have them.  The only item to be addressed is you desktop PC.  For that, it looks like that system model will only accept half-height GPUs, and I'm guessing they also can't be very long or consume very much power.  Finding a card that fits that description and has dual DisplayPort outputs may admittedly be a challenge.  But your reward would be the option to use a wider variety of KVMs (since DisplayPort outputs can feed HDMI inputs, but the reverse isn't true) and you'd also be getting away from using a VGA source signal, which looks noticeably worse than anything else because VGA is an analog signal.

Hopefully this at least gets you looking into some options that might work for you!