It has come to our attention that the installer is apparently having difficulty satisfying the prerequisite of finding MAXWELL5_ROOT on some installations. The installer has always required this, but it seems that the Maxwell installer may be setting MAXWELL5_ROOT only at the User level. So, if you get an error during the installation, indicating that Maxwell Render could not be found, or Maxwell Render doesn't start, please edit your machine's Environment variables, adding a System Environment variable called MAXWELL5_ROOT, which points to your Maxwell Render directory, and another called MAXWELL5_MATERIALS_DATABASE environment variable pointing to your material database folder (usually inside the Maxwell 3 installation folder).
The two environment variables should be:
Name: MAXWELL5_ROOT Value: C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell Studio 4 (or the location of your Maxwell install if different from this default one).
Name: MAXWELL5_MATERIALS_DATABASE Value: C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell Studio 4\materials database (or the location where you installed the Material Database, if different from this default location)
The System Environment variables are located in the lower box, as seen here:
Environment variables may be accessed from:
Windows Vista
going to the Start menu
right-clicking 'Computer'
clicking 'Properties'
in the dialog box, clicking the 'Advanced System Settings' link
clicking 'Environment variables'
Windows 7
Windows 8 or 10
tap Windows key
type Environment Variables and hit Enter
System Properties window will open
Click Environment Variables button