MaxiVista v3 User Manual - Contents

The Extended screen mode enables you to extend your primary PC's desktop to up to three spare PCs
The remote control mode allows to operate multiple computers from a single mouse and keyboard
The clipboard synchronization feature allows sharing text and file clipboard contents with all other computers
The Mirror mode duplicates the screen contents of one computer to another computer using any network connection

An overview about the feature set of the different MaxiVista variations can be found in the online shop.

Document conventions

Bold, italic type in this documentation indicate MaxiVista menu items
Filenames are printed initalic letters
All MaxiVista Options are made from the task-bar icon of the Server Program. To open the program menu "right-click" the icon and select the desired command from the pop-up menu
Special MaxiVista terms are explained in the Glossary

This symbol indicates an important note or useful hint

System requirements

You need two Windows Laptop-/Desktop- or Tablet PCs
Primary PC: Microsoft Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista
Secondary PC: Windows 98/ME/2000/2003/XP/Vista
Each PC must have its own monitor; connected to a VGA card with 16 bit color depth or more (>65.000 colors)
A local WLAN, Ethernet, Firewire or USB-to-USB network connection between the PCs (more infos)
5 MB hard-disk space
Optional: Adobe Acrobat Reader to read and print the offline manual
Optional: Internet access to download future product updates

Note about Windows Vista

MaxiVista only supports the 'classic' display mode under Windows Vista using legacy XPDM display drivers. MaxiVista does not work with WDDM because Vista does not allow multiple WDDM adapters of different vendors on the same PC. Aero display mode is consequently also not supported as it would require WDDM.

Software Installation

MaxiVista requires an initial installation of the Server Program on the Primary PC and the Viewer Program on the Secondary PC.

Make sure to have administrative rights when installing the server program as it includes the installation of a virtual video driver
Important: Close any video card related software such as nView, UltraMon, PowerDesk or PivotPro before installing MaxiVista
Screen flicker during installation is normal. Even if nothing seems to happen for a few seconds, please wait until the installation has finished and the MaxiVista icon appears in the task tray

Installation of the demo version

Please note that the installation of the full version differs from the demo version

Demo version Installation video tutorial

The demo version consists of two separate installation files:

Uncompress the installation ZIP file
Run Maxivista_Setup_PrimaryPC.exe on the Primary PC
Run Maxivista_Setup_SecondaryPC.exe on the Secondary PC
Follow the instructions as the Wizard guides you through the installation procedure

The demo has following limitations:

The program expires after 14 days after first installation and can be launched 50 times
The demo can only installed one time within a network
Only one Secondary PC is supported (vs. up to three Secondary PCs in the Pro Edition)
The demo contains a splash screen and a "demo" background image
The mirroring feature is not included in the demo. The performance of mirroring however is absolutely the same like the extended screen mode

Installation of the Standard Edition

If you are using the Pro/Mirror Pro Edition and if you are using multiple secondary PCs or multiple monitors on the secondary PC please proceed below

Run the installation file on the Primary PC
Follow the instructions as the Wizard guides you through the installation procedure
During the installation, the Viewer Program file MaxiVistaViewer.exe has been generated and placed on your Windows Desktop
Transfer this file to the Secondary PC by using the network connection, an USB memory stick or a diskette. There is no further installation required

Installation of the Professional/Mirror Pro Edition

Run the installation file on the Primary PC
During the installation procedure, please select the suitable amount of virtual video cards to be installed:
- Choose 1xVGA if you have one Secondary PC to be used as an Extended Display
- Select 2xVGA i f you have two Secondary PCs or if you would like to use two monitors attached to one Secondary PC
- Use 3xVGA for three Secondary PCs or if you would like to use three monitors, attached to one Secondary PC. The option Option 3 also applies, if you have two Secondary PCs; one of them with one monitor and the other Secondary PC with two monitors
At the end of the installationyou will find the launcher application for all Server Programs MaxiVista All on your Windows desktop
Launch MaxiVista All which will first launch Server Program A first. It will offer to create its dedicated Viewer Program A. Create the Viewer Program A and copy it to the first Secondary PC
If you decided to have Option 2 during installation, close the Server Program and launch MaxiVista All again. Now Server Program B will additionally launch and offer to create its Viewer. Create and copy the Viewer Program B to the desired Secondary PC
If you decided to have Option 3 during installation, close the Server Programs and launch MaxiVista All again. Now Server Program C will additionally launch and offer to create its Viewer. Create and copy the Viewer Program C to the desired Secondary PC

As each virtual video adapter requires system resources, please only install as many VGAs as you really intend to use
If the Viewer Displays should be in wrong order you can easily arrange them in the Windows Display Properties of the Primary PC
Closing Server Program A automatically closes Server Program B and C for your convenience
If you close Server Program B, it will automatically close Server Program C

Using MaxiVista for the first time

Run the Server Program on the Primary PC
Run the Viewer Program on the Secondary PC
Make sure that both PCs are linked together via a TCP/IP network connection
Configure any firewall to allow MaxiVista accessing the network

You should now see the MaxiVista program icons in the lower right of the task tray of each PC:

task tray icon

The icon color represents the current MaxiVista status:

Icon color

Meaning

Both icons are green

and

Congratulation - You made it!

The extended screen is enabled on the Viewer PC and should display the background of the Primary PC's desktop.

Now, just drag any program window from the Primary PC to the Secondary PC's monitor.

If this should fail, the operating system may assume a different arrangement of the monitors on your desk. Example: Your Secondary monitor is located on the left. Consequently you are trying to move the mouse cursor to the left border of your Primary PC's monitor. Windows however may think that your Secondary PC's monitor is placed on the right and expect you to move the cursor across the right border instead. This minor issue can be fixed in a snap!

Both icons are solid yellow

and

Fine - You're almost done!

The Server Program has successfully found the Viewer Program on the network and is awaiting your command:

Double-click the Server Program icon to activate the extended screen
If the icon does not change to green, please reboot the Primary PC to allow finalization ofthe virtual video driver installation and try again
If it still does not work, uninstall the Server Program on the Primary PC, reboot(!) and reinstall the software

At least one icon stays black

and
or
and
or
and

The Server program could not find the Viewer program on the network.

Solutions:

It is very important to configure any firewall properly
Proper firewall configuration should help; if not, please close and restart both MaxiVista programs to exclude the possibility of a 'hiccup' in the communication between Server and Viewer Program. This might occur sometimes because of network timing issues
Still no joy? Please try our step-by-step online troubleshooter

Firewall configuration

Important note

It is very important that you configure any Firewall!

Please make sure that following ports are accessible:

	UDP Port on the Secondary PC	TCP Port on the Primary PC
Demo version	5999	5950
Full version and SE Edition	5999, 6001, 6002	5951, 5952, 5953

We will now describe how to configure the built-in Windowsfirewall and ZoneAlarm. If you use another firewall product, please refer to its documentation to learn how to make above ports accessible.

Configuration of the WindowsFirewall

If using the Windows firewall, please simply click Unblock when the Firewall security alert message pops up:

That's all - You are done!

If you have accidentally blocked MaxiVista from accessing the network or if the firewall still causes problems, please open the Windows Control Panel Windows Firewall tab Exceptions select “MaxiVista” in the program list and delete the MaxiVista exception entry from the list. The firewall would then display the above warning message again:

Firewall configuration for ZoneAlarm

You need to grant MaxiVista access to the network when being asked by Zonealarm:

Additionally, you need to change ZoneAlarm's security settings. Open the ZoneAlarm control panel Click on the tab Firewall Set the Internet Zone Security to Medium:

Please configure all PCs where you have installed MaxiVista and ZoneAlarm.

Software firewall and other internet related 'security' products may slow down the network or the computer in general. Even temporary deactivation often does not eliminate the influence of such programs. In such cases, you may consider either to choose another product or to think about to remove such products, which are discussed pretty much controversal anyway (see Wikipedia article about software firewalls).

Use the Secondary PC as an extended screen

Make sure that the Server Program is running on the Primary PC and the Viewer Program is running on the Secondary PC and that both have a yellow taskbar icon (Also see chapter MaxiVista status conditions).

Then, selectActivate extended screen from the Server Program pop-up menu.

To deactivate the extended screen either…

Select Deactivate extended screen from the Server Program menu
Double-click on the Server Program taskbar icon
Select Exit from the pop-up menu to quit the Server or the Viewer Program. The only disadvantage is that if you want to re-activate the extended screen it will take longer for the Server Program to find the Viewer Program on the network again
You can temporarily minimize the extended screen window by clicking on the extended screen area with the Secondary PC’s mouse. The extended screen is still transmitted to the Secondary PC but not displayed. To retrieve the extended screen, click on the task button located in the task bar
If you click into the extended screen using the Secondary PC's mouse, MaxiVista automatically switches to the remote control mode. To revert back to the extended screen mode, click onto the task tray viewer program icon
MaxiVista remembers the last used mode (extended screen vs. remote control mode). You can also activate the last used mode by double-clicking the task tray server program icon
Short flicker on both screens during (de)activation is normal
The extended screen remains active even in remote control mode and screen contents located in the extended screen area stays invisible in the background. If you have placed windows in the extended Display area, they will instantly become visible again when you switch back to extended screen mode

Controlling the Secondary PC from the Primary PC

MaxiVista Pro/Mirror Pro allows you operating up to three Secondary PCs from the mouse and keyboard of the Primary PC. To enable the remote control mode, either...

select Activate remote control in the server program menu.
enter the hotkey you may have defined in the MaxiVista settings to switch from extended screen mode into remote control mode. This only works if MaxiiVista is currently in extended screen mode
click into the extended desktop with the Secondary(!) PC 's mouse

Once you enter the Secondary PC screen in remote control mode, the Primary PC's mouse takes control of the Secondary PC's when the mouse cursor crosses the border of the PC's monitors. Additionally, keyboard input made on the Primary PC will be processed by the PC which has the mouse cursor focus.

When activating the remote control mode, MaxiVista needs to activate the extended screen first and then minimizes the extended screen display into the background. screen flicker is normal.

The extended screen remains active even in remote control mode and screen contents located in the extended screen area stays invisible in the background. If you have placed windows in the extended Display area, they will instantly become visible again when you switch back to extended screen mode

MaxiVista remembers the last used mode (extended screen vs. remote control mode). You can also activate the last used mode by double-clicking the task tray server program icon

The remote control mode is not available while MaxiVista is in window mode (refer to chapter display modes), mirror mode, or if the extended screen is rotated

The remote control feature is not available in all MaxiVista versions. Further information can be found in the shop section

Clipboard synchronization

In remote control mode, MaxiVista Pro/Mirror Pro can also synchronize the Windows clipboard contents (text and files) between all PCs. If you copy something into the clipboard of the Primary PC, it will be transferred to the Secondary PC's clipboards and vice versa.

You can enable/disable clipboard synchronization for individual clipboard data formats (text, formatted text, meta data, bitmaps, files) in the MaxiVista settings. You can also define another hotkey for the clipboard synchronization (default is CTRL-C).

MaxiVista utilizes shared folders to transfer files between the computers and creates a shared folder c:/maxi_temp/ on all computers. Whenever you copy a file to the clipboard of any computer, MaxiVista deletes previous contents from this folder and places a copy of the file(s) into the shared folder. The file is then transferred across the network and pushed into the clipboard of all other computers.

You can define a time out where MaxiVista automatically disable the share after a given time. Make sure that the selected timeout is long enough for larger file transfers as MaxiVista does not wait until completion of the file transfer.

It may be necessary that you manually open any shared folder if it requires to log on to the correspondening machine. Otherwise MaxiVista may not be able to access its shared folder.

VERY IMPORTANT: Any change of clipboard contents overwrites the clipboard contents of all other PCs as long as clipboard synchronization is enabled and MaxiVista is in remote control mode!
The clipboard synchronization is temporarily disabled when MaxiVista is in extended screen or mirroring mode
Clipboard synchronization is not available in all MaxiVista versions. Further information can be found in the shop section

Mirroring the Primary Display to the secondary PC

Select Activate mirror display from the Server Program pop-up menu to enable the mirroring of the primary PC's desktop to the secondary PC's screen.

When mirroring the Primary PC’s display content, the Primary PC’s screen resolution adapts to the Secondary PC’s screen resolution unless you change this behaviour in the MaxiVista settings.

The Mirroring feature is only available in the MaxiVista Mirror Pro version and not in the demo version. Further information can be found in the shop section

Mirroring is currently only possible from the primary monitor of one primary PC to one secondary PC. Broadcasting the primary PC screen's contents to multiple computers is not yet possible.

Program settings

The program settings can be reached by clicking on the MaxiVista server program and selecting Options from the pop-up menu.

Display modes

The extended screen content can be either displayed in a window on the secondary PC or in full-screen:

Full-screen mode	Window mode

The extended screen occupies the complete screen of the secondary PC. This is the default display mode.	The viewer program is showing the extended screen cotents in a resizable window. You still have access to the secondary PC's desktop

Select Options tab Output and choose the desire display mode:

Display mode	Description	Notes
Sync viewer resolution	The secondary PC changes to the desired screen resolution	This is the fastest display mode and set by default
fit-to-screen/window	The extended screen content is zoomed/shrinked to fit if its resolution does not match the screen resolution of the secondary PC. The secondary PC's screen resolution is not altered. This mode is useful to obtain a miniature preview of a large desktop area if used together with a high extended screen resolution. Or the extended screen can act as a magnifying lens if used with a low screen resolution.	DirectX9 and much CPU power is required on the secondary PC. If DirectX support is missing for the selected screen resolution, then MaxiVista falls back to the display mode Virtual resolution
Virtual resolution	The secondary PC's screen resolution is not altered and the extended screen screen contents is shown 1:1 (without zooming/shrinking). If the extended screen resolution exceeds the screen resolution which is currently set on the secondary PC then the MaxiVista automatically pans the screen contents and follow the mouse cursor.	Little CPU power is required on the secondary PC
Scroll bars	The secondary PC's screen resolution is not altered and the extended screen screen contents is shown 1:1 (without zooming/shrinking). If the extended screen resolution exceeds the screen resolution which is currently set on the secondary PC then scroll bars appear allowing you to move around the desktop space

The remote control mode cannot be activated if you have disabled the full-screen mode

You get best results if the extended screen resolution matches the physical resolution of the Secondary PC display

Optimizing the Display Speed/Quality

The extended screen display performance is primarily influenced by the network bandwidth, the transmitted screen size/resolution and the CPU power of the computers.

At given network bandwidth and CPU power there is a compromise between screen responsiveness (lag) and picture quality

Performance optimizer

MaxiVista v3 now includes a performance optimizer which automatically finds suitable parameters for your specific network connection.

The optimizer requires a test image on the extended screen in order to probe the network connection.

Activate the extended screen with the desired screen resolution and color depth
Launch the applications you would like to use and move the program windows onto the extended screen
Open the Options switch to the tab Optimizer and click the button Optimize
The optimization takes a moment depending on the network speed

If you are not happy with the result, please try again by using another color depth. Unfortunately, a few of the supported compression methods do not work with both color depths (16 vs 32 Bit).

The optimizer replaces the Wifi option of previous versions and is much more effective

If you want to display significantly other screen contents on the extended screen or if you change the network connection, then please run the optimizer again

Additional hints to optimize the performance:

Certain Firewalls such as ZoneAlarm can drastically decrease the network performance. Even disabling such software firewalls does not help as they seem to stick in the system persistently. You may consider to try another firewall product or use a dedicated network connection without connection to the internet and fully uninstalling the firewall (including reboot afterwards) just to figure out whether the firewall might be the reason of the performance flaw.
When using a desktop wallpaper (vs. a unicolor background), please enable the option Options TabCompression Cache desktop wallpaper
For maximum performance, please use the display mode Synchronize resolution
Reduce other network traffic when MaxiVista is active. E.g. avoid transferring large files between the connected PCs
Due to a Windows XP issue, the network speed may drop drastically if you have multiple network adapters enabled at the same time (e.g. WirelessLAN together with an Ethernet connection). Either deactivate all adapters which are not used for MaxiVista or avoid using the same subnet
Router/Switches, Virus scanners and Firewalls between Server and Secondary PC may also decrease the speed. You can easily check whether your network connection is the bottle-neck by using a dedicated network connection, ideally with a cross-over ethernet cable (refer to www.maxivista.com/lan.htm). If multiple network connections are active between the PCs, make sure, that you select the correct network adapter by setting the a manual IP address for the suitable network adapter of the Secondary PC (learn more how to do that)

Experienced users can fine-tune additional parameters in MaxiVista:

Parameter	Settings	CPU load	Network load	Recommendations
Compression method	0..4: lossless data compressions	minimal	very high	Lossless unmodified picture quality. 100 MBit Ethernet or Firewire network connection is recommended.
	5..9: YUV 420 color reduction	low	medium	Lossless picture at reduced color depth. Thin lines or color variations may appear on the extended screen. Recommended for Wireless LAN network connections. 32 bit color depth required!
	10: JPG picture compression	very high	minimal	The JPEG compressions can cause artefacts when used at low quality settings (see below). Ideal for slow Wireless LAN network connection. 32 bit color depth required!
Max. frame-rate	1..50 fps (frames per seconds)	Increases with higher frame-rate		The higher the frame-rate the more responsive the extended screen is displaying. Values exceeding 25 fps are only recommended if you require an extremely responsive screen.
Quality (JPG)	10..100%	-	Decreases with lower values	This settings only applies when using compression mode 10 (JPG).
Threshold	0..20	Decreases with higher values		This parameter defines the threshold of screen change data until a new frame is transmitted to the secondary PC. It affects the responsiveness of the screen.
Reaction	5..25 milliseconds	Decreases with higher values		The higher the reaction time, the less responsive is the extended screen display.

Activating MaxiVista automatically on Start-up

Select Options Misc. and enable the option Auto-connect on startup.

From now on, MaxiVista automatically activates itself in the default start mode you have defined in the Options.

However, this still requires you to manually launch the Server and Viewer Program on all computers. To do this automatically, copy the Server Program icon to your MS Windows StartUp folder of the Primary PC and do the same correspondingly with the Viewer Program icon on the Secondary PC. Then the extended screen will automatically be activated after each system startup of both computers.

The option Auto-connect on startup is temporarily disabled if you deactivate the extended screen via the Server Program. This prevents the Server Program from immediately enabling the extended screen again. With the next start of the Server Program, the option will be re-enabled again

When the viewer program is running as a service, it does not need to be placed into the startup folder as services are always launched automatically with the system by default.

Defining hotkeys

MaxiVista allows to define hotkeys for quick access to frequently used settings. Click Options tab Hotkey and define the desired hotkeys.

If using the Pro Edition and run multiple server programs simultaneously you must define separate hotkeys for each server program.

If MaxiVista detects that the selected hotkey is used by another application, it ignores the hotkey definition

To avoid conflicts with hotkeys defined or reserved by other applications, we recommend to use combinations with CTRL- & ALT- or SHIFT-keys which are not so common

Gamma correction for the extended screen

Select Options tab Gamma to set the desired gamma correction for the extended screen.

General information about gamma correction can be found at Wikipedia

Manual IP address configuration

If you have multiple network adapters installed on the Secondary PC, you can manually define the IP address of the desired network adapter of the Secondary PC.

Click the Server Program icon Configuration tab IP address click Manual Enter the IP address of the Secondary PC's desired network adapter and confirm with OK.

Selecting a manual IP address has the minor advantage that the server program does not need to poll the viewer program via UDP.

Important note

Please note that you need to enter the IP address of the Secondary(!) PC here and not the Primary PC's IP address.

If using multiple network adapters in a Windows XP computer, it is strongly recommended to define different subnets for each adapter to avoid a potential slow-down in performance (due to a Win XP bug)

Miscellaneous

Setting the location of the secondary PC

If the secondary PC is not placed side to side of your Primary PC's monitor or on the wrong side you need to 'tell' Windows about it. You can set the location of the Secondary PC monitor in the standard Windows Display Properties dialog. Right-click your Windows desktop Select Properties tabSettings to enter the Windows Display Properties and arrange the monitor icons corresponding to your physical display setup:

Video demonstration

You can access this dialog more conveniently by clicking “…” (the three dots) from the MaxiVista Configuration menu.

When selecting certain screen resolutions in this dialog, the secondary display switches to Portrait mode. If you enable the option Rotate 180° in the MaxiVista Configuration, the screen will be rotated by an additional 180°.

The remote control mode cannot be entered while the extended screen is set to portrait resolutions or is rotated

While in remote control mode, the Rotate 180° option is not available

Changing the extended screen's resolution

Select the desired screen resolution from the Server Program pop-up menu

If you enable the option Remember last used resolution in the Options, MaxiVista always uses the screen resolution that is set on the Secondary PC

Rotating the extended screen

Select a portrait screen resolution from the server program task tray icon to rotate the extended screen by 90°.

You can add an additional 180° rotation by enabling the option under Options tab Output 180° Rotation

3rd party pivot software may interfer and should not be used for the MaxiVista extended screen. The rotation method provided by MaxiVista has significantly higher performance.

Installing the viewer program as a Windows service

You can launch the viewer program either as a regular program (recommended) or as a Windows service if you need to log onto a locked secondary PC in remote control mode.

Pro&Cons of using the viewer program as a service

Feature	Running as a Service	Running as a program
Logging into locked secondary PC from the primary PC in remote control mode
Ability to send CTRL-ALT-DEL to the secondary PC
Support of Windows XP 'Fast User Switching'
Windows Vista Support

Select Install as service in the viewer program popup menu. The viewer program will automatically launch as a service after rebooting the secondary PC.

Make sure to remove the viewer program from the StartUp folder as the program and service cannot run simultaneously.

The service does not work under 2003 if you are runnning a Remote Desktop Session.

Keeping MaxiVista up-to-date

Connect your Primary PC to the internet and selectVisit our siteCheck for Updatesfrom the pop-up menu of the Server Program.

MaxiVista does not transmit any personal or confidential data. It only sends a portion of the license key and the version number of the current installation.

If an update has been found, please follow the instructions on the website.

If you want MaxiVista to stay up-to-date automatically, please enable the option Auto-check for updates. This setting is enabled by default after installation.

Please do not check for updates too often. Two or three times a month is sufficient

This feature is not available in the demo version

Using MaxiVista on existing Dual Monitor Systems

MaxiVista works fine on existing multi-monitor setups. The screen resolution of the MaxiVista displays can be set independently from the other installed displays.

Example setup with additional monitors, both on the Primary and the Secondary PC:

Dual Monitor Setup

Multiple monitors on the Primary PC

You can use an unlimited amount of monitors on your Primary PC. MaxiVista does actually not recognize and care about other Primary PC monitors. Simply add additional (virtual) video adapter(s) to your Primary PC and their output will be displayed on the Secondary PC(s):

You may only eventually need to configure the Windows Display Manager corresponding to the physical arrangement of the monitors on your desk

Multiple monitors on the Secondary PC(s)

If you have installed multiple monitors on your Secondary PC and wish to use only one of the displays to display the extended screen, please right-click on the Viewer Program running on the Secondary PC and select the desired monitor from the pop-up list:

Viewer program pop-up

If you start the viewer program the next time, it will remember the monitor selection

If you would like to use multiple monitors of your Secondary PC to display the Primary PC's extended desktop, you would need the MaxiVista Pro or Mirror Pro Edition:

Multiple monitors on the 2nd PC

Please read the installation instructions to learn how to setup MaxiVista to support multiple monitors on the secondary PC.

With MaxiVista Pro/Mirror Pro you can use a total of up to three monitors of your Secondary PC as additional screen for your primary PC or three secondary PCs where each secondary PC has one screen attached. Or you can use one screen of one secondary PC plus two screens of two additional secondary PCs. The primary PC can always have an unlimited amount of screens.

Arranging multiple monitors properly

Please make sure that the monitors are arranged in a way that the monitor IDs have a sequential order:

This is important to allow the mouse to seamlessly move across the monitors in remote control mode.

Following example shows you how it should not(!) be configured:

You can see in above wrong configuration that the mouse cursor would go from monitor #1 of computer #1 to monitor #2 of computer #2 which would fail (The mouse cursor would jump to the left border of monitor 1 when trying to move the mouse from monitor #1 to monitor #2 of the secondary PC).

As you can see, the way of using multiple monitors on the Secondary PC has been changed compared to the previous version.

On the Primary PC, make sure that you have chosen the suitable amount of extra virtual VGA drivers during the installation, corresponding to the amount of monitors installed on the Secondary PC. E.g., if you run a total of three displays on the Secondary PC, install two extra VGA drivers (in addition to the one of the standard installation) to obtain a total of 3 virtual video drivers
Copy all new Viewer Programs onto the Secondary PC and run them
Right-click each Viewer Program and select from the pop-up menu, which Viewer program shall display its content on which physical monitor
Launch all Server Programs on the Primary PC. You may need to adjust the arrangement of the new monitors in the Windows Display Manager
This feature is not available in the MaxiVista Standard Edition. Further information can be found in the shop section

Working with multiple MaxiVista licenses

You must purchase a license for each installation of MaxiVista on your site. Not only because of the license policy, but also for an important technical reason: For each license key, the MaxiVista installation dynamically creates an unique pair of Server and Viewer Programs. This mechanism ensures that multiple Viewer Programs on the same network show the screen's contents of its corresponding Server Program.

A Viewer Program created by the MaxiVista installation using license key 'A' cannot be used together with a Server Program with the license key 'B'!

The demo version may not work with multiple installations on the same network as it has no license key mechanism

MaxiVista status conditions

The MaxiVista taskbar icon can indicate three different status conditions.

task tray icon

Icon color	Description
Yellow - blinking	When flashing, the Server Program tries to find its corresponding Viewer on the network. The blinking frequency decreases over the time
Yellow	The Server Program has found its Viewer Program on the network. However the extended screenor remote control mode is not yet active
Green	The extended screen or remote control mode is enabled

Software Uninstallation

To uninstall MaxiVista clickStart Programs MaxiVista Uninstall MaxiVista on both PCs.

If using the full version of MaxiVista (vs. the demo) the Viewer Program is removed by simply deleting the single program file. There will be no traces left on the PC.

A reboot is required to remove the virtual graphics adapter driver

Afterwards you can safely delete the MaxiVista program folder c:/program files/MaxiVista with the Windows File Explorer.

If the virtual graphics adapter driver is not removed from the Primary PC, you can do this manually: Right-click the My Computer icon on your Windows desktop Select Properties tab Hardware Device Manager double-click Display adapters. If you find the MaxiVista driver is still listed, right-click on it and select Uninstall and reboot the system.

You may need to delete the file maxidemo.sys or maxivista.sys from the folder c:\winnt\system32\drivers after the reboot before to make the uninstallation option of the virtual graphics adapter available

Glossary

Term	Description
Primary PC	The PC which viewing range you would like to extend
Secondary PC	The PC which acts as the second display
Server Program	The MaxiVista program that sends the extended screen content to the Secondary PC. This software is installed on the Primary PC
Viewer Program	The MaxiVista program that displays the extended screen of the Primary PC. This software is installed on the Secondary PC
Extended Screen	The monitor display of the Secondary PC that you would like to use as an extra screen