Last month, I posted about finding a way to get three monitors working with my laptop (well, two external), one of which was actually attached to my desktop computer. The magic behind this is MaxiVista, a program which “installs a virtual video driver onto your primary PC which fools Windows into thinking that an additional monitor is installed.”

It’s not free, so I decided to try it out for a few weeks and see if it was worth the coin. I’ve tried it and I like it. There are actually times when I *need* three monitors, in order to see three different programs at once. Other times, it’s just nice.

So, here I am, putting my money where my mouth is. When I first posted, MaxiVista was advertising for about $20 USD. Unfortunately, that sale is over. They have a three versions of the software to choose from:

• Standard, which only does extended screen (the scenario that I’ve described)
• Professional, which adds remote control, clipboard synchronization, and supports up to three secondary PCs
• Mirror Pro, which adds desktop mirroring.

I went for the professional version, for $39.95 USD. A bit steep (my sweet spot for software hovers between $20 and $30), but I think it’s going to be worth it. First of all, the remote control mode means that I no longer need Synergy in order to control my desktop’s iTunes from my laptop. I can essentially flip MaxiVista from extending my laptop to remote controlling my desktop. It’s very seamless and smooth, and I have to admit, more robust than Synergy (but keep in mind that Synergy is open source, and does a pretty damn fine job). Clipboard synchronization means it’s easy to copy things from one screen/machine to another. For example, if I copy a URL from my laptop, I can easily paste it into the browser on my desktop.

Anyway, if you’ve got a couple of computers sitting pretty close together, and they’re on a network, and you’re interested in being able to maximize your desktop, I suggest trying out MaxiVista. It’s a software-only solution to a typically hardware problem, and it does a wonderful job.

I once read that having a second monitor on your computer made you 20% more efficient. Does that mean that a third monitor will make me 40% more efficient?

P.S. Apologies if you see a double post - I somehow hit some magic buttons that posted this entry before I was done!

In yesterday’s post introducing the GearFire blog, I commented that I wished I could have another (third) screen for my laptop. Two commenters came to my rescue. Mathew pointed out that it’s possible to buy a USB to VGA adapter, which was convenient, although perhaps not amazing speed/quality. Alexander gave me two links, one for a VillageTronic set of products and one for a Matrox line of products.

I was impressed by all of these potential solutions to my need. I took a peek at the links above. They’re for different companies, and offer a hardware solution, i.e., some kind of adapter to which I would attach monitors. I’m sure they would work very well, but I was a little put off by the price - $100 to $300+. That, and I’d most definitely have to order online and *wait* for delivery.

So, I decided to Google “USB to VGA” to see if such a thing was more common, perhaps even available at my local Staples store.

One of the first links I found was to an awesome page at Tom’s Hardware, clearing describing how to install and use a Sitecom USB 2.0 VGA Adapter. Sweet. I bookmarked it for later perusal, something to read once I found the actual hardware to use.

Back to Google. I was scanning the results page, trying to decide where to go next when I spotted an intriguing “Sponsored Link”. Yeah, I try not to use the sponsored links too often; I don’t know why, but it’s like rushing out to buy something when you see a commercial. But I couldn’t resist it. It’s tag line “Usb to vga Your Laptop as an extra monitor for your Primary PC. Try it now!”. Hmmm, “Try it now!” is always appealing.

The link was to MaxiVista.com, and here is where my search ended.

Let me just bring you up to speed on my hardware set up. I have a laptop as my primary computer. To the left of that is a new flatscreen monitor that my wonderful mother bought me as a “whatever” present (thanks Mom!). On the right side is my desktop computer - I’ve set up the monitor on a diagonal so that I can see it from either leg of my L-shaped desk. This is a super nice computer, but I tend to use it for light-weight things, such as backup, music playing, bit torrent, etc. etc. It’s on all the time, but mostly as my radio.

I used to use this monitor as my laptop’s secondary monitor, using a physical KVM switch to switch the monitor from laptop to desktop. The system worked very well for me. When I got my new flatscreen, it became my laptop’s secondary monitor. The desktop’s monitor was no longer useful to me - well, I could still connect it to my laptop, but it would just mirror the other monitor. I ended up installing Synergy, which lets me control both my laptop and my desktop from my laptop’s keyboard/mouse. Very sweet - means I can skip a song in iTunes without having to leave my laptop.

Anyway, now that I’ve found MaxiVista, my desktop monitor is about to become much more useful to me. With MaxiVista, I can connect this third monitor to my laptop, using software alone (my computers are networked together). The MaxiVista’s web page is nice and clean, and explains pretty well what you can do with the software. There’s even examples on how it would work if you were connecting two systems, each with two monitors. In addition, there’s a free trial (14 days or 50 starts) and even a video to explain installation. Installation is a breeze - and I mean, a breeze! (As an aside, one of the reasons I was so willing to try this product out was because their web presence was so good - appearance is everything.)

So, I’m going to be trying this product out for a a couple of weeks. Odds are pretty good it’s going to be perfect for me, and worth the $20.96 that it costs to buy. I’m thinking that I probably won’t have it on all the time - especially since I still use my desktop a bit - for iTunes and all. What I see happening is that when I get into some work that would benefit from three monitors, I’ll turn this bad boy on, and get to work. When I’m done geeking out, I’ll turn it off an go back to my synergy set up. I foresee much geeky “fun”ness in the next couple of weeks.

And thanks to Mathew and Alexander for pointing me in the right direction - if I hadn’t known it was possible to attach additional monitors, I never would have looked for a solution!

By the way, UltraMon, as suggested by Mathew, Rocks! I’m already using it for my dual-monitor set up. When I enabled MaxiVista to get the third monitor going, UltraMon was right there with me. Awesome.