Super Noob In All Things Windower...

So as you all may know, Xbox 360 is no longer supporting ffxi or maybe it's vice versa. I've played this game for over a decade on 360 but I've been forced to download the pc version. With that being said I want to see if I could put use all the advantages pc users have had over me in the form of windower and other third party applications. Only issue is that I'm not really computer savy in terms of coding and such.

My questions are this, what stuff should I download and how "easy" is the stuff to use? Some if the things I'd like to do is to know my timers on screen, swap out gear automatically (idle, tp, ws sets based on ws, pdt, etc). It would also be cool if I could use my xbox controller and wirelessly view the game on my lcd tv versus my laptop monitor. Any info for a noob pc version user would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Question 1: http://www.windower.net - download and install (easy)
Question 2: Download Timers plugin under Plugin section of Windower (after you've installed it) (easy)
Question 3: Download Gearswap addon under Addon section and read here (this is not easy)
Question 4: Download x360 controller drivers from here, wired or wireless (you may need a reciever) and setup buttons under POL's controller config (relatively easy)
Question 5: I don't stream my laptop to a TV, someone else will have to step in here.

I'd give a more detailed explantion but you have asked a mouthful, hopefully it's a useful start.

Windower is p.much a click-and-play program. As Phaded said, download it, scroll through the plugins/addons tab (there are descriptions and About links on how to use them) and install the ones you like.

Gearswap is the more complicated addon as it requires a job.lua file in order to work. Luckily, there are many pre-made lua's out there with most of the functionality built in. All you'd need to do is edit the gear section with the gear you own.

Some useful addons, that I use anyways are:
AzureSets (Create and save specific blu spells and auto-load them on the fly)
Battlemod (Customizes battle chat)
Cancel (Needed for most Gearswap LUA's)
Chatlink (Allows you to open link posted in chat)
Distance (Shows your distance to target)
DressUp (Let's you set specific rules when not to "blink" on gear changes)
Enternity (Enters "enter" automatically during cutscenes)
FindAll (Searches for items on your char, as well as any mules you've logged into recently)
Scoreboard (A basic parser)
Send (Needed for most Gearaswap LUA's)
Shortcuts (Allows shorthand spelling of spells/job abilities/etc; ex: //provoke)

Couple of things for me please

1. I used to have the mini map but this has disappeared.

2. Years ago when I had a laptop, I downloaded windower and it made the graphics look better. Notably the character text above the names were in a different font and the main cursor for targeting had changed to a blue triangle.

How do i find these / download it and install again? they were really useful.

I have looked under plug ins etc on the windower launcher but can not find. I am using version 4

Thanks

FFXIDB is the minimap, which is a windower plugin. As for the font and cursor changes you could try FFXI View

Thanks for the info everyone! I'm going to download windower today. The only issue I'm still running into is I don't know the proper button configuration for example I don't know which Xbox 360 button is 1, 2, 3, etc. does anyone know if there is a guide for the buttons? I'm using the ffxi config file to try to change it.

I'm told (if you have x-input enabled) default "E" should set it right.

What is x-input?

I'm not sure if the buttons are the right # for an x-input gamepad but I'm showing this to illustrate. The checkbox on the right that says "enable XInput" should be selected if you're using an official xbox 360 controller (and most knock offs).

As for what it is: an input type that they introduced with directx 9 (if I remember correctly), the game was made for directx 8~, so until a few months ago it didn't have xinput support, at all. This was added (althought bugged at first) therefore allowing people with 360 controllers to properly use their controller.

edit; also arguably an inferior input scheme, but lulzM$.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectInput#XInput

etc.

Sweet my xbox controller works! Now in terms of windower I downloaded it hit the switch to use some of the add on and plug ins but how do I turn it on in game? Doesn't seem like in doing something right. Also I'm assuming this lua stuff (I assume for auto gear changing based in actions) is complicated or hard to do