The name of the Windows operating system translates as "windows." This version of the presentation and organization of software components and their controls allows you to very simply and conveniently interact with the graphical interface of the system. Next, we will consider the main types of windows that can appear, as well as some elements and actions with them.
Windows window: what is it?
To determine the essence of this term, one should proceed from its usual interpretation. It is easy to guess that the Windows window is a rectangular area of the graphical interface on the screen of a computer monitor, which displays programs, documents, notifications, prompts, etc.
All windows can be divided into two main types: with variable and constant size. A resizable Windows window can be seen in the program display. Unchangeable size is mainly used for document windows, messages and tooltips.
In addition, there are some types of windows (most often these are messages) that cannot be closed in a standard way (there is no button with a cross in the window). You can get rid of such notifications only by clicking on special buttons inside the window. However, one can also encounter windows of critical errors that do not close at all (only forced rebooting of the system helps to get rid of them)
The main types of windows
So, what is a windows window, sorted out. Now let's look at the main types of windows that can be found in this operating system. Among the main species , the following are distinguished:
- application windows;
- document windows;
- dialog boxes
- context menu windows;
- popup windows.
The windows of the programs and documents that are created in them are interconnected. But the application window can be displayed by itself (an empty document), and the document window without the program cannot exist separately. This is the so-called window-to-window type. Windows 10 or any other system is a vivid confirmation of this.
In addition, the window in the window can often be found on the Internet, for example, when watching a movie or listening to music online, when the main window is the shell of a web browser, and the second is a media player built into the resource.
Application windows
This type of window is the largest class in the graphical interface of the system, since its operation was originally built on the execution of a particular program.
Windows program windows represent a certain workspace in which documents are created, edited or organized, and, depending on the type and purpose of the application, completely different tools and controls may be present.
Program Window Controls
However, for all application windows, several common elements can be distinguished. In particular, this applies to the three buttons, which are usually located in the upper right corner.
The button with a cross is designed to quickly end the program. A button with two small squares allows you to quickly reduce the size of the window, after which it changes to a button with one small square for quick deployment of the main window in full screen. The button with a bottom line is used to minimize the main window either in the "Taskbar" (but the program or edited document remains active in the background, without interfering with the execution of other processes and applications), or in the system tray.
Also, any window of a Windows program or a third-party developer may contain a special “header” with the name of the application itself and the name of the document, by clicking on it and holding the mouse button the window can be dragged to any area of the screen (only if the application is not currently works in full-screen mode), or make a quick change in size by double-clicking, which corresponds to pressing a button with a square or two, as mentioned above.
Below, as a rule, there is a special panel with the tools of the program itself, even lower is the working area of the document window, at the very bottom is the status bar, which can display current information on the document itself, its parameters, currently performed actions, etc. In some applications, it may be absent altogether. In "native" Windows programs, it may also not be displayed due to deactivation.
On the sides, most often on the right (or left) and below (less often - above), there are scroll bars that allow you to navigate through currently invisible areas of the toolkit of the program itself or the document being edited.
Window presentation options and basic operations with them
As for the presentation and management of Windows windows, let's first look at their appearance. Depending on the OS version, they may look different.
So, for example, in Windows 7, windows, or rather some of their elements, are translucent, since initially such an effect (Aero) was installed in the system’s interface itself; in Windows XP or Vista, the design is voluminous. In the eighth and tenth modifications, due to the use of the Metro interface, everything is flat.
But in terms of management, all windows have a few general rules. If the full-screen mode is not used , they can be dragged while holding the left mouse button anywhere on the screen, resized horizontally and vertically by placing the cursor on the side borders, or proportionally resizing by placing the cursor on the corner of the window.
In addition, simultaneously open windows can be active and inactive (this can be seen by changing the color of the “header”), but the active window is always in the foreground. To activate an inactive window, simply move the cursor to it and press the left mouse button, although you can also move between them using the Alt + Tab combination (in fact, this method is suitable for all programs, even if they use full-screen mode).
Finally, a button or a separately called “Minimize all windows” command in Windows systems minimizes all active and inactive program windows to the “Taskbar”.
Document windows
This type of window is exclusively a workspace in which the creation or editing of information of a certain type is performed.
This area responds to actions with the main program toolkit, to keyboard input, or from another source. In particular, programs for creating music or editing sound perceive signals from MIDI keyboards, connected electronic instruments, microphones, or external audio inputs.
Dialog boxes
Such windows, as a rule, either already exist in some application or on an Internet resource, or the operating system displays them independently.
The essence of their appearance is that the user is given a certain choice of actions, without confirmation of which further work of the program or transition to the next function is impossible. Such windows may contain lists or buttons like “Yes” (“OK”), “No”, “Accept”, “Refuse”, “Ignore”, “Skip”, “Repeat”, “Cancel”, etc. In other words, from the point of view of programming, the well-known principle of "yes, no, otherwise."
Context Menu Windows
This type of window is usually hidden from the user's eyes and is called mainly by right-clicking. Such menus contain some additional commands that may not be available when using the main tools of the program.
In the Windows systems themselves, additional lines are integrated here, for example, archivers, antiviruses, unlockers, etc.
Windows popups
Finally, this type of window represents various kinds of prompts or notifications when committing or demanding / offering to take any action.
System notifications most often appear in the tray and are decorated in the form of yellow rectangles. Other hints may occur when you hover over them at a specific location in the program workspace.