Tools We Love: Playxpert
Posted on January 4th, 2009 by Raknathal under Efficiency Tips, General Tips, Low Level, World of Warcraft, WotLK
If you are still using a single screen for your computer, and we assume most of you still are (cough – Gavin – cough), you know what a pain it can be to run the game full size and do – well, anything else. The whole routine of Alt+Tab is a mess. But recently we ran accross a really slick little free bit of software that can end all of this for you and truly revolutionize the way you operate your computer with WoW running.
Playxpert is a revolutionary program. With its motto, “The death of alt+tabbing,” it seeks to end full-screen alt+tabbing in games by having this nifty little tool as an overlay on top of DirectX (Windows 3D) Applications. When it’s open it places a toolbar that is completely customizable with widgets inside any game you choose!
The core (included with the program) widgets are:
- An Internet Browser, so you can check your email whenever and wherever
- A Tunes player, which plays music in a specific folder, and also from popular players like Winamp
- A System Diagnostics utility, which shows how many resources are being used by your computer at the time the widget is opened. It also has live graphs showing performance.
- And last, but definitley not least, the Friends widget. This one is my favorite. Through this widget, you can talk to friends through MSN, AIM, Yahoo IM, ICQ, and more, all through windows that run in WoW!
Alongside these core widgets is a small but growing library of fan-made widgets with one for the armory, and another for wowhead, that all run in game! There is no reason to ever alt+tab again!
Another bonus of this great program is that its 100% free! The developers will add features such as custom skins that will be an optional paid offer, but the core app and the widgets are free.
Now before I post the link that you’re all eagerly waiting for, I have to discuss one bad thing. This program is Windows XP specific. It doesn’t work with Apple or Linux Operating Systems.
You can still install it in Windows Vista, but the in-game overlay is temporarily disabled as the developers work out the last kinks with the software. The developers have announced that an update is coming along shortly which will enable it.
So, if you really want to have access to information, talk to your friends, see another character’s profile, jam to music, and Dominate your server all at the same time; then go grab what certainly seems to be a slick way to Dominate with Playxpert here.
So what it sounds like is this is a program that will run in front of WoW on my screen. Am I right in this? If that is really the case, I’ll just stick to using the windowed option. Rather than take up a ton of space on my already crowded screen I can just keep everything open on the task bar and still see it all and access it with out alt-tabing or taking up very much much screen space. Not to mention it works well on vista with out having to wait for the developers to patch it.
We released our Vista drivers this week by the way!
Thank you for the write-up
Looks great.
lol… small world.. you never know who your readers are
The problem is that the vista drivers often crash amnd bring the game down with it
oh poor poor gavin,,,,, I usee to haev the alt tab death thing and so i bought a 22″ monitor to run as main instaed of my 19″, not much money but its so useful. Those of you studyin or working from home, Two screens also ahs its advatages at work. try getting your work to buy you a monitor like mine did hehehe.
How much of a resource hog is it? It sounds like a nice app if it runs lean.
Not to poo-poo this idea or anything, but I just run WoW in windowed mode (maximised still shows full screen) and alt-tabbing is instant. I’ve not had any problems at all.
Yep, same here windowed mode works just fine.
For some of us (ie me) windows mode bugs the crap out of us. i dont know what it is but i hate how wow looks in windows mode, so this app works very well for me. thanks for informing me!
Your just like my little brother
i play in windowed as well
not much of a secret but it works fine for me
You know, kinda when I am playing Warcraft…well I am playing Warcraft. I check all my E-mails and everything before I start the game so that I can enjoy it. The whole get an app or alt+tab to check something else defeats the purpose of a game.
I use a duel screen setup and so far ULTRAMON has been the best prog for that situation (always open for others), it adds buttons to swap windows to other screens easily, extends bottom bar with windows opened etc.
This prog sounds pretty good the for the single screen situation, specially with wowhead and wow
I agree w/Keivamp, in that I ck e-mails, etc. before playing, so I can settle into WoW without distractions. Then I just use one of my old laptops as a ’support’ system, with things like thottbot, worldofwar.net(has great completed maps of all areas, among other things), etc. in different tabs, for instant access while WoW’ing on my other sys.
There no real need for this you can just resize your wow browser and you dont need to alt+tab ever again
:O Cool! Thanks for sharing
*goes off to download*
I agree with Orgamah. I downloaded Playxpert and all I’m getting from it is headaches. It pisses me the heck off by trying to use it. Its a nice idea though. If they work out some of the stupid bugs it might be usable. Don’t bother! Its more problems than its worth. Unless you have a lot of patience.
If u gonna spend $200 a year on a game, invest in the proper tools.
Windows in getting so big and complicated, it’s becoming difficult to make such fancy software. I strongly recommend a second 19” monitor. it’s relatively inexpensive (150$) and it’s really nice, not just for wow. Of course, i always have wowhead and thotbot opened next too me, so when looking for a quest detail or the next skill upgrade for my professions, it’s just under my eyes, not an ALT-TAB (and 10 sec. and risk to crash) away. I even had the instance pathways and bosses opened next to me so I didnt look to bad when I first tried Naxx.
Finally, I can browse the lastest Dominate news while waiting for a group. Lol.