Release Notes – SoftXpand™ Home Version 1.0

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These Release notes provide information about purchasing, installing and activating SoftXpand Home version 1.0 as well as known limitations.

SoftXpand Homeallows a single user to work with two independent workstations or for 2 users to work simultaneously, independently and seamlessly while relying on a single computer.  This means each user can surf the web, play a computer game, or stream high resolution video, and enjoy all of the versatility and freedom of a stand-alone PC; but at a fraction of the cost.

Setup will install a complete guide providing you to access additional information about how to configure your system and any other information you need in order to use SoftXpand Home wisely.

 

License

	Trial	Full version
Type	The default option. Enabled when installing SoftXpand Home without activation and enables experiencing SoftXpand Home.	An unlimited license to run SoftXpand Home received following its purchase.
Activation required	No	Yes
Conditions	License Duration: 14 days Workstation duration-Workstation will shut down and restart every 1 hrs. Note: There will be a 5 minute alert message to allow clean shutdown of the workstation. Closing the message will prompt an immediate restart of WS	No Limitation

 

 

 

Installation of SoftXpand Home Version 1.0

 

Following is the complete list of steps to take when installing SoftXpand Home:

Note: Be sure to implement all hardware and software preparations before continuing.

• Download the SoftXpand Home installation file (SoftXpandHome.exe) by following this link.

Note: SoftXpand Home’s default setup is licensed for a 14 day Trial period. SoftXpand Home may be activated any time during or after the trial period.

• Log on to a Windows user account with administrative privileges.
• Locate and run the SoftXpand installation file. The SoftXpand installation Wizard will open.
• When prompted, click ‘Next’.
• Read and approve the Software License Agreement (marking the ‘I accept…’ checkbox and clicking the ‘Next’ button).
• Click ‘Install’ to start the installation.
• When prompted to allow Hardware Installation, click ‘Continue Anyway’. The wizard will then finalize the installation.
• Click ‘Finish’ to launch SoftXpand Home. SoftXpand Home's Control Panel will open.
• Click ‘Start Now’ to launch SoftXpand Home. Windows will restart and the SoftXpand Home logon dialog will appear on each monitor.

Note: following the initial installation, all keyboards and mice are assigned to the monitor which is Primary under Windows (the monitor from which the installation was initiated).

• Assign keyboards and mice to their designated Workstation (monitor) manually - as instructed below, or by using the SoftXpand Home Admin Tools.

 

Manually Assigning Keyboards and Mice to Monitors

As per the tip balloon on each Workstation's logon dialog, click the Ctrl+Shift+F(#) key combination, followed by immediately clicking both the left and right buttons of the relevant mouse. This will associate the keyboard and mouse used to the monitor on which the balloon was displayed.

See Mapping hardware devices for more information.

 

Support for user account with empty passwords.

Note: In order to allow logon to SoftXpand Home using blank passwords, the SoftXpand Home installation setup changes the registry setting below:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\limitblankpassworduse

For more information see this link.

Activation/Purchasing of SoftXpand Home

To purchase a license for SoftXpand Home, use following link: http://www.miniframe.com/products/softxpand/softxpand-home.html 

Purchasing a license for SoftXpand Home requires the use of a PayPal account or a credit card.

After purchasing a license for SoftXpand Home you will need to activate it. 

You can launch the SoftXpand Home activation dialog box from the SoftXpand Control Panel or from the SoftXpand Admin Tools.

• Fill in all details in the Activation info section.
• Select one of the activation methods in the Options section:

Activate Online– (default) Use this when an Internet connection is available.  The activation will complete automatically when you click the Activate button.

Activate Off line - Use this to generate an Activation file to be sent to Mainframe’s activation email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

• Fill in the serial number provided to you upon purchase in the License Info section.
• Click ‘activate’ to activate online or ‘Create Activation File’ to generate the offline activation file.
• When using Offline activation, after creating the ‘Activation File’ and emailing it to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , you will receive an email with an attached file containing an activation code.  You will need to import this file by selecting the ‘Import Activation’ button on the activation dialog to complete the activation of SoftXpand Home.

General product information:

i)        Features grayed out are not relevant for the home version of SoftXpand.

 

ii)      SoftXpand Home is not started automatically by default.

 

iii)    By installing SoftXpand Home please be aware that some Windows dialogs are replaced and become text based dialogs instead of graphics based dialogs.

Once SoftXpand Home is started then Windows dialogs are replaced with SoftXpand dialog look and feel.

 

Automatic logon to a SoftXpandworkstation can be configured using the Admin Tools – workstation properties.  Automatic logon is not available for user accounts with blank passwords.

iv)    SoftXpand Home is aimed to support logging on to a local computer and as a result does not support Active Directory and Domain environments.

 

Limitations and Known issues

• system compatibility

i)        Internet Explorer screen flickering:

http://www.miniframe.com/knowledge-base/article/ie_flickering_on_softxpand_workstations.html

 

ii)      Screen saver:

SoftXpand Home does not support using executable screensaver.

It is better in such a case to rename the desired screensaver to the Windows default screensaver name.

 

Please note that by default using a Screen saver within SoftXpand home is disabled.

 

iii)    Off line files:

SoftXpand Home does not support Offline files.

For further information please refer to this link:

http://www.miniframe.com/component/kb/article/softxpand_does_not_support_the_use_of_offline_files.html

 

iv)    Logon settings:

Upon installation of SoftXpand Home logon to RDP sessions using blank passwords will be automatically be enabled.

For more information see this link:

http://www.mini-frame.com/knowledge-base/article/how_to_enable_disable_the_support_of_softxpand_blank_password_logon_to_softxpand_home.html

v)      Sound problems may occur using certain applications:

http://www.miniframe.com/knowledge-base/article/sound_works_on_windows_media_player_but_not_on_ie,_skype_and_some_other_applications.html

 

• Software compatibility

 

i)        Google Chrome opens but cannot connect to any address

 

ii)      When using YouTube movies with Internet Explorer 8 in full screen mode, the picture may freeze but sound continues.

 

iii)    When using Windows live messenger with SoftXpand Homeyou are required to follow  this link in order to successfully connect: http://www.miniframe.com/component/kb/article/windows_live_messenger_2009_cannot_sign_in.html

 

iv)    When using Kaspersky antivirus 2010 (also 2008 and possibly other versions of Kasperskey):

If the PC restarts every time you run SoftXpand Home (and SoftXpand Home will not start) you should download and run Sys Internals Auto runs from Microsoft: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

In the Winlogon  tab – uncheck the Klogon checkbox.

 

 

• Hardware

 

i)        Video Cards

Audio-out devices built in to HDMI video cards are not available with SoftXpand. Instead, assign an available separate audio device (onboard, PCI, USB) to the HDMI monitor.

 

ii)      SoftXpand video modes

When using a dual head video card – do not use different video modes for each workstation. Use either SAFE video mode for both workstations, or NATIVE video mode for both workstations. Do not mix video modes on the same video card 

 

 

 

 

• Recommendations

In addition to the information below, the SoftXpand knowledge base include various How to…, Best practice and Troubleshooting documents at http://www.miniframe.com/knowledge-base.html 

 

i)        When using Softxpand Home on a computer with NVIDIA video cards installed it is recommended to not use an NVIDIA driver version higher than 182.50. Newer drivers will work but may cause system instability.

For more information please follow this link:

http://www.miniframe.com/component/kb/article/troubleshooting_driver_related_problems.html

 

ii)      Recommended guidelines for using multimedia application within SoftXpand Home

http://www.miniframe.com/knowledge-base/article/guidelines_for_using_multimedia_applications_with_softxpand.html

 

iii)    Using SoftXpand Home as a plug and play solution with Display link:

DL Installation guide: http://www.miniframe.com/knowledge-base/article/softxpand___displaylink_quick_installation_guide.html

 

Known issues with DL drivers 5.x: http://www.miniframe.com/knowledge-base/article/softxpand_known_issues_with_displaylink_5.x_drivers.html

 

Windows does not allow Display Link monitors to be assigned as a primary Windows monitor (in the Windows display properties). A native video card must be the primary monitor.

 

iv)    Recommended instruction to use SoftXpand Homewith Skype and Windows               Live Messenger  :

http://www.mini-frame.com/knowledge-base/article/how_to_use_windows_live_messenger_and_skype_with_softxpand.html