A legal way to box on the same machine

[nodoze]

I'm not doing separate virtual desktops for each client. I open 1 fresh virtual desktop "<windows key> + Ctrl + D", just so I don't have to worry about closing other applications on the task bar. On my fresh virtual desktop I have 5 copies of wowclassic.exe pinned to my taskbar (wowclassic.exe, wowclassic1.exe, wowclassic2.exe, etc). You can't just pin the same .exe 5 times - you have to rename the file. (I experimented with renaming these windows after I ran a single exe, but it proved much simpler to just rename the .exe five times before I open it)

Then I open all 5 WoW clients on that same virtual desktop - that way each window is in position 1-5 on the taskbar and I can switch between them with <windows key> + 1, <windows key> + 2, etc. But I still have all 5 clients open on the same virtual desktop. If you did different virtual desktops for each client, I don't know of a way to get all 5 of them to display at the same time.

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I know there's a way to edit one of the config.wtf file in real time so that each wow.exe that you open will be passed only the parameters for that window (different account names, reduced gfx settings for your followers, etc). Then you open each wow.exe with a different batch file for those settings. But I don't know how to do that while having different wow.exe's pinned to the taskbar - I may need to go back to the old-school symlink method. For now I'm just dealing with all 5 windows opening with the same parameters.

I feel like every weekend I'm still completely adjusting how I have everything set up. Going from 5 accounts spread across 3 monitors does not work well for mouseover focus. (This is not my setup, but my monitor setup is identical to this: https://gyazo.com/4cca07595bc4b0e4eb5562b23c0313ee, which lets me play like this: https://gyazo.com/316303c4a551f058688d408091eb2edd).

So I put them all on a single monitor with the alts in tiny windows on the right hand side which is fine for mouseover focus, but now everything is too small to see, and my action bars on the right hand side are getting in the way. I may be able to play with my UI to get it simplified to only display what I really need - but I'm afraid that will still be too small. I think I want a 2nd 32" monitor so I can keep my main on 1 screen, and then 4-alts split in quarters on the 2nd monitor, but I'm going to wait another month+ for the dust to settle before investing in more hardware.

In the mean time, if anyone has a good small screen, simplified UI for their followers, I'd love to see it.

Thanks so much for sharing your research and testing as I think it is helpful for the community. Your setup makes more sense to me now after reading the above post.

I am slowly getting used to my single 42" 4K (3840x2160) monitor... Last week 42" was still bothering me but it seems to be bothering me less and less... The advantage of it being so big is that I may have enough "real-estate" to do it all on one monitor and even see enough details in the smaller winodows... Not 100% sure yet but I am thinking of doing my 5box setup like Tuts n' Stuff is doing here:

https://youtu.be/B45FL6aOT7k?t=449

I drive from my Paladin Tank and for now I will just mouse down to the healer window to mouse-over-focus heal from the Healer (I will make a bigger party frame than he has in this example and likely have it go left-to-right rather than up-to-down)...

For the 3 DPS I will have them in smaller windows forming a quadrant with the lower-right-hand corner of my tank's window and for DPS rotations I will rotate my mouse in a quick circle around that corner and spam my DPS key as I do it. I am playing Paladin+3Locks+Priest so my DPS rotation is a 15 second channel so i won't need to do that very often (unlike mages spamming Arcane Explosions).

I actually like having the extra open slot (if on a single monitor) as that is where I put my iTunes mini-player or youtube miniplayer so I can have visuals and mouse over controls when I want them... I also sometimes put my Discord chat in that open spot so I can see conversations while playing and help if/when I can.

While I am glad to be helping folk come up with solutions I suspect for me in the end I will really just look forward to Joe MultiBoxer (JMB) and likely just do mouse-over-focus until then... If JMB has even just half the polish and ease of use that Lax has always put into ISboxer then it will be more than worth it for me than all these other solutions...