Let $R$ be a commutative Noetherian ring, $\mathfrak {a}$ an ideal of $R$, $M$ an $R$-module and $t$ a non-negative integer. In this paper we show that the class of minimax modules includes the class of $\mathcal {AF}$ modules. The main result is that if the $R$-module ${\rm Ext}^t_R(R/\mathfrak {a},M)$ is finite (finitely generated), $H^i_\mathfrak {a}(M)$ is $\mathfrak {a} $-cofinite for all $i<t$ and $H^t_\mathfrak {a}(M)$ is minimax then $H^t_\mathfrak {a}(M)$ is $\mathfrak {a} $-cofinite. As a consequence we show that if $M$ and $N$ are finite $R$-modules and $H^i_\mathfrak {a}(N)$ is minimax for all $i<t$ then the set of associated prime ideals of the generalized local cohomology module $H^t_\mathfrak {a}(M,N)$ is finite.
Let $R$ be a commutative Noetherian ring with identity and $I$ an ideal of $R$. It is shown that, if $M$ is a non-zero minimax $R$-module such that $\dim \mathop {\rm Supp} H^i_I (M) \leq 1$ for all $i$, then the $R$-module $H^i_I(M)$ is $I$-cominimax for all $i$. In fact, $H^i_I(M)$ is $I$-cofinite for all $i\geq 1$. Also, we prove that for a weakly Laskerian $R$-module $M$, if $R$ is local and $t$ is a non-negative integer such that $\dim \mathop {\rm Supp} H^i_I (M)\leq 2$ for all $i<t$, then ${\rm Ext}^j_R (R/I, H^i_I (M))$ and ${\rm Hom}_R(R/I, H^t_I(M))$ are weakly Laskerian for all $i<t$ and all $j \geq 0$. As a consequence, the set of associated primes of $H^i_I (M)$ is finite for all $i\geq 0$, whenever $\dim R/I \leq 2$ and $M$ is weakly Laskerian.