MaxTo v3 — what took you so long?

MaxTo 3 is out. It is a complete rewrite — years in the making, several iterations deep — and it does less than version 2 did. That is the point, and this post is about why.

Version 3 is a drastic simplification of how MaxTo works as an application. It reduces the core concepts almost to the point of a single-purpose tool.

How we got here

MaxTo shipped its first version in 2009. Seventeen years and only two major versions later, “overdue” is putting it kindly.

MaxTo’s previous versions took an expansionist approach: everything was considered for inclusion. From what was a very simple premise, we expanded it to add so much functionality over time that it became hard to keep everything working well with new Windows versions and the like.

Also, the core approach I used — injecting code into other processes to know when any window was maximized — has not aged well. It is the kind of technique modern security tooling rightly treats with suspicion, and I wanted to avoid it completely with MaxTo 3.

The third problem was that I was consistently fighting against what Microsoft wants developers to do, in terms of build systems and Windows features. It felt like an uphill climb.

Finally, the company that I co-owned and published MaxTo under was dissolved late last year. I then purchased the rights to continue development on MaxTo on my own.

A reset

The key insight — that a window manager doesn’t need to watch every window, only to act when you summon it — came from using similar tools for the Mac platform, which I have used extensively for work purposes over the last few years. I tried a lot of window managers there, and a few of them gave me significant inspiration. My favorite by far has been Lasso, which I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone using a Mac.

MaxTo 3 is a lot simpler. There is a single keyboard shortcut you need to remember (Win+Ctrl+Space by default). This brings up the resize window: a small grid where each rectangle corresponds to a location on the screen. To resize the foreground window, you simply click and drag and the window is moved.

If you Ctrl+click when resizing, you create a preset. You’ll be asked to assign it a single key. The next time you open the resize window, you simply press the preset key you chose to move a window there immediately. Moving windows then becomes a keyboard chord.

You can also move the resize window around to your different monitors, by pressing Page up or Page down.

Pricing

MaxTo hasn’t made much money. Sales have been consistent, but after subtracting running costs, it has been a net loss for the last two years.

If MaxTo is going to survive, I have to do something drastic to the prices. I like the lifetime licenses we have today, and they will still be possible to buy. However, the main focus will be on subscription pricing, giving me a chance to build up a recurring revenue stream that will hopefully allow me to spend more time on MaxTo in the future.

I have settled on these three variants:

• Home subscription for €29/year, covering up to 5 machines.
• Home lifetime license for €99, covering up to 5 machines.
• Business subscription for €39/year per machine.

The new restriction: Home licenses will not work on managed computers, where you have signed in to a work account. These machines will require a Business license. This applies to domain-joined PCs, accounts signed in to Entra ID, or MDM-managed PCs. This key change is intended to make sure business use is paid for as business use, as I have seen a significant number of users purchasing Home licenses instead.

This is a significant price hike, and inflation only explains part of it. Since the price was last adjusted, the cost of living has increased 35% (Norway, 2017 average until May 2026) — if I had merely adjusted the existing prices for that, they would have been approximately €39 for a Home lifetime license, and €25/year for a Business license. The new prices go further than that on purpose: they are what it takes for MaxTo to be sustainable.

I am honoring existing lifetime license holders. If you already own a lifetime license, it covers MaxTo 3 as well — just activate it in the new version. These licenses will continue to work, and will not be affected by the managed computers restriction.

Why is there no lifetime license for businesses? If MaxTo delivers ongoing value to a business, a subscription is the right fit — and businesses are no strangers to paying per machine for the software they rely on. Many companies have rapidly gotten used to AI tools at 100–200 USD per person, per month. A year of MaxTo Business costs less than one month of that.

Worth the wait?

So that’s what took so long: a dissolved company, a complete rewrite, and a rethink of what MaxTo should be. Whether it was worth the wait is your call to make, not mine — MaxTo 3 comes with a 14-day free trial, full functionality and no signup, on Windows 10 and 11. Download it and see if it fits the way you work.

To everyone who has bought MaxTo over the years: thank you. You are the reason this program gets a third act.