System requirements

MaxiVista works fine on any set of standard Windows Laptop-/Desktop- or Tablet PCs:

Primary PC requirements

The primary PC is the computer which desktop area is being extended:

Secondary PC requirements

The secondary PC is the computer which shall act as the extended monitor:

  • Windows 98/ME/2000/2003/XP/Vista 32 Bit.
  • VGA card with 16 bit color depth or more (>65.000 colors).
  • Not officially supported: Linux with Wine or MacOS X with VirtualPC.
  • Approximately 1 MB hard-disk space.

General requirements

  • At least two computers are required. There is no use for MaxiVista in a single computer environment.
  • Each computer must have at least one monitor.
  • Local TCP/IP network connection (more information about networking).

General MaxiVista limitations

  • Hardware graphics acceleration such as DirectX or OpenGL is not supported on the Secondary Display as it would require the emulation of a graphics processor by your standard CPU which would not be favourable.
  • TV/DVD playback on the extended screen does only work if your video software allows to disable the "hardware overlay" mode (information about overlay).
  • All computers used with MaxiVista need to be on the same desktop to allow you to watch the secondary PC's monitor(s) while remote controlling it from the primary PC. MaxiVista is no remote desktop software like VNC or PCAnywhere. You cannot use an internet connection to link computers located in other facilities as the MaxiVista data protocol is optimized for local wireless or ethernet network connections (more info).

MaxiVista and Windows Vista / Windows 7

Please read this very important information regarding Windows Vista and Windows 7.

  • The secondary PC can use Vista with WDDM with activated Aero without any problems.
  • On the primary PC, however, MaxiVista does only support the Windows Vista classic display mode when using legacy XPDM drivers for your physical video adapter. You cannot use MaxiVista together with WDDM as Windows Vista generally disallows installing another video card when an WDDM video card driver is active. This restriction is not limited to MaxiVista but also applies to physical video adapters in general (more first-hand information by Microsoft). MaxiVista does consequently not support the Aero display mode.
  • Please contact your video adapter vendor for XPDM support of your video card.
  • If in doubt about above video driver issue, please just try the free demo version which allows you to try the software risk-free before making a purchase.
  • Windows Vista generally does not allow you to log on to remote PCs using any 3rd party software "for your safety". This means, that the new MaxiVista feature to use the viewer program as a service and to log onto the secondary PC via the remote control feature does not work.
  • Windows Vista x64 disallows to install software with unsigned drivers "for your safety". As MaxiVista drivers are not signed, it does not work under Windows Vista 64 Bit OS.
  • We currently working on a new MaxiVista version that provides support for Windows Vista and Windows 7.
  • We may add support for 64 Bit operating systems in the future but this has lower priority.
  • We kindly ask for your understanding that we are not able to provide any additional details such as release dates or detailed specifications. Please rather sign the spam-free newsletter to stay tuned for new product releases.