any good reason to use maximizer?

I started my 5 box a couplke of weeks back, got keyclone and maximizer set up and started killing boars, running 5 windows on a 24" screen (4 very small boxes and one bigger)

A few levels later as i needed to sell, train and get some professions, i logged on the accounts in windowed mode to avoid having to use the really small windows. Anyway, since then i never went back. At this point i only have the main window open and the rest hidden. This has materially reduced lag, makes the other characters easier to run around when they need to sell etc, and doesnt seem to have any adverse effects in instances so far. Basically its like im playing a paladin that can drop totems, nuke, sheep and heal, and as long as the others either follow or are positioned pre pulls, i really dont care about what they see.

However, im only level 19 and have no real wow experience so this may just be the first few levels being quite forgiving. So although this seems to work pretty well (and appears a lot easier on the machine - just 2 gb memory), id rather not develop bad habits early on that I will need to break at higher levels.

So the question is, am i missing something vital by not seeing the other screens? Should i bring my maximizer windows back?

Yeah, I am spoiled by maximizer now. I use PiP and occasionally click on healbot on my healer toon (rare occasion). How do you select quest givers or use a quest item with your windows minimized? I have 2 22" monitors and I can see my toons well enough to do those things.

to do specific stuff on one of the characters i'd just alt-tab, or click on that tab, and then interact with questgivers/trainers/merchants etc. Just one screen, so i cant do detailed things like merchant or AH on the small windows anyway.

you dont know about PiP then.

press a button, bring one of your small screens to the big screen, press another, does it agian.
i have mine mapped to the function keys.

it works like Alt-Tab, only better.

and to answer your question, maybe. you may have times where slaves will break follow due to terrain. you may have times where you need to talk to someone like a questgiver or a taxi, or you might need to loot. sure its just as easy to alt tab, but losing the view (and untimately, control) on your main to loot with your slave may cause some deaths.

also, some addons (like jamba) will automate a lot of things for you, so clicking on a merchant in your small screen will automatically sell every gray they have, or automatically buy 20 waters, or whatevers. oh and also automatic repiars. but you have to click on the merchant. small screen is fine for that. same with taxi. you must open up the dialog for all your characters to take the taxi, but only your main needs to click the destination. the rest will follow.

same with quest rewards if they are all the same class. if they're different classes, you'll have to click on the rewards separately. its easy for me. i check out what i get from my main screen, then select what each slave will want on their screen. i dont need to look at their tiny screen because i have the exact options and details on my main screen. alt-tab? blah. useless.

aha ok no didnt know that one. That would be ideal i suppose. Maybe i should dust off the plans to install a x64 OS and get some more ram afterall. Thanks

lol cool. i added more stuff to my previous post.


here's a link to understand maximizer/pip more. http://www.solidice.com/keyclone/pip.html