MaxiVista - Extending your desktop without a dual head video card

Michael Gartenberg | March 23, 2004, 11:10 AM

Over the weekend I was looking for a solution to a problem that I had. I normally use my laptop in my Office but there's a full desktop there, connected to large monitor and I always feel that monitor is not being put to best use. I have dual head adapter in my laptop but I didn't want to have to keep plugging and un-plugging the connection. Why can't I just connect over my network, wouldn't that be cool. A little research and I discovered MaxiVista that lets you do just that. Download the software, install it on the primary PC and the host PC, and Voila, Windows extends to the monitor of the 2nd PC... It's just that simple. It might not be the solution everyone needs but for me, it was simple, elegant and worked exactly the way I thought it would. I know work with my laptop in from of me with primary tasks there and Outlook running on a large screen to my right that is perpendicular to my desk. When I get an alert, I can see it from my peripheral vision without the direct intrusion popping up. Every so often, I can glance over and see what's what. I'm a long time fan of dual displays but this opens up a new level of flexibility for dealing with multiple information sources at the same time.