Windows Window: Views, Basic Elements

The name of the Windows operating system is translated as "windows". Such variant of representation and the organization of program components and control elements allows to interact very easily and conveniently with the graphical interface of the system. Next, the main types of windows that can appear, as well as some elements and actions with them, will be examined.

Windows Window: What is it?

To determine the essence of this term, one should proceed from the most common interpretation of it. It is not difficult to guess that the Windows window is a rectangular area of the graphical interface on the computer monitor screen, which displays programs, documents, notifications, prompts, and so on.

All windows can be divided into two main types: with a variable and unchangeable size. A Windows window with a variable size can be found in the display of programs. 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 can not be closed in the standard way (there is no button with a cross in the window). You can get rid of such notifications only by clicking on the special buttons inside the window. However, you can also find critical error windows that do not close at all (only forced reboot of the system helps to get rid of them)

Basic types of windows

So, what is a Windows window, figured out. Now let's look at the main types of windows that can be found in this operating system. Among the main species are the following:

• Application windows;
• Windows of documents;
• Dialog boxes;
• Windows of context menus;
• popup windows.

The windows of programs and documents that are created in them are interrelated. But the application window can be displayed by itself (an empty document), and the document window without the program can not exist separately. This is the so-called "window in window" type. Windows 10 or any other system is a vivid confirmation.

In addition, a 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 built-in media player.

Application windows

This type of windows is the largest class in the graphical interface of the system, since its operation is initially built on the execution of a program.

Windows program windows are a kind of 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.

Controls of program windows

However, for all application windows, you can select several common elements. In particular, this applies to three buttons, which are usually located in the upper right corner.

Button with a cross is designed to quickly end the program. A button with two squares allows you to quickly reduce the size of the window, and then changes to a button with one square to quickly deploy the main window to full screen. A button with a bottom dash serves to collapse the main window or to the "Taskbar" (but the program or the edited document remains active in the background without interfering with other processes and applications) or to the system tray.

Also any window of a Windows program or third-party developer can contain a special "cap" 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 of size by double clicking, which corresponds to pressing a button with a square or two, as was 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 there is a status bar, in which the current information on the document itself, its parameters, currently performed actions, etc. can be displayed In some applications, it may not be available at all. In "native" Windows programs, it may also not be displayed due to deactivation.

On the sides, most often on the right (or left) and at the bottom (rarely - on top), there are scroll bars that allow you to navigate through the invisible areas of the toolkit of the program itself or the document being edited.

Variants of representation of windows and the basic operations with them

As for the presentation and management of Windows windows, first let's look at their appearance. Depending on the OS version, they may look different.

For example, in Windows 7, windows, or rather some of their elements, are semi-transparent, because initially in the interface of the system is set such an effect (Aero), in Windows XP or Vista, the design is large. In the eighth and tenth modifications, due to the use of the Metro interface, everything is flat.

But in the management plan, all windows have several general rules. If you do not use full screen mode, you can drag them with the left mouse button pressed anywhere in the screen, change the size horizontally and vertically, position the cursor on the side borders, or make a proportional resizing by positioning the cursor on the corner of the window.

In addition, simultaneously open windows can be active and inactive (this can be seen from the color change "caps"), but the active window is always located in the foreground. To activate an inactive window, just move the cursor to it and press the left mouse button, although you can move between them with the Alt + Tab combination (in fact, this method is suitable for all programs, even if they use full-screen mode).

Finally, the button or the separately called "Collapse All Windows" command on Windows systems minimizes all active and inactive program windows in the "Taskbar".

Document windows

This type of window is an exclusively work area in which you create or edit information of a certain type.

This area responds to actions with the main program's tools, keyboard input, or from another source. In particular, programs for creating music or editing sound perceive the signals of 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 choice of actions, without confirmation of which further operation of the program or transition to the next function is impossible. Such windows can contain lists or buttons like "Yes" ("OK"), "No", "Accept", "Deny", "Ignore", "Skip", "Repeat", "Cancel", etc. In other words, from the point of view of programming, the well-known principle "yes, no, differently" is applied here.

Context Menu Window

This type of windows is usually hidden from the eyes of the user and is caused mainly by a right-click. Such menus contain some additional commands, which may not be available when using the main tools of the program.

In Windows-based systems, additional strings are also integrated here, for example, archivers, antiviruses, unlockers, and so on.

Windows Pop-up Windows

Finally, this type of window represents all sorts of hints or notifications when making or requesting / proposing to perform any actions.

System notifications appear most often in the tray and are in the form of yellow rectangles. Other tips can occur when you hover over them in a specific place in the program's working area.