Working with windows

Although the contents of every window are different, all windows share some things in common. For one thing, windows always appear on the desktop—the main work area of your screen. In addition, most windows have the same basic parts:

Parts of a typical window

• Title bar. Displays the name of the document and program (or the folder name if you're working in a folder).

• Minimize, Maximize, and Close buttons. These buttons hide the window, enlarge it to fill the whole screen, and close it, respectively (more details on these shortly).

• Menu bar. Contains items that you can click to make choices in a program. See Using menus, buttons, bars, and boxes.

• Scroll bar. Lets you scroll the contents of the window to see information that is currently out of view.

• Borders and corners. You can drag these with your mouse pointer to change the size of the window.

Other windows might have additional buttons, boxes, or bars. But they'll usually have the basic parts, too.

To move a window, point to its title bar with the mouse pointer . Then drag the window to the location that you want. (Dragging means pointing to an item, holding down the mouse button, moving the item with the pointer, and then releasing the mouse button.)

• To make a window fill the entire screen, click its Maximize button or double-click the window's title bar.

• To return a maximized window to its former size, click its Restore button (this appears in place of the Maximize button). Or, double-click the window's title bar.

• To resize a window (make it smaller or bigger), point to any of the window's borders or corners. When the mouse pointer changes to a two-headed arrow (see picture below), drag the border or corner to shrink or enlarge the window.

  Drag a window's border or corner to resize it

  A window that is maximized cannot be resized. You must restore it to its previous size first.

Note

Although most windows can be maximized and resized, there are some windows that are fixed in size, such as dialog boxes.

Hiding a window is called minimizing it. If you want to get a window out of the way temporarily without closing it, minimize it.

To minimize a window, click its Minimize button . The window disappears from the desktop and is visible only as a button on the taskbar, the long horizontal bar at the bottom of your screen.

Taskbar button

To make a minimized window appear again on the desktop, click its taskbar button. The window appears exactly as it did before you minimized it. For more information about the taskbar, see The taskbar (overview).

Closing a window removes it from the desktop and taskbar. If you're done with a program or document and don't need to return to it right away, close it.

To close a window, click its Close button .

Note

If you close a document without saving any changes you made, a message appears that gives you the option to save your changes.

If you open more than one program or document, your desktop can quickly become cluttered with windows. Keeping track of which windows you have open isn't always easy, because some windows might partially or completely cover others.

Using the taskbar. The taskbar provides a way to organize all of your windows. Each window has a corresponding button on the taskbar. To switch to another window, just click its taskbar button. The window appears in front of all other windows, becoming the active window—the one you're currently working in.

Clicking the Calculator taskbar button brings its window to the front

To easily identify a window, point to its taskbar button. A small picture called a thumbnail appears that shows you a miniature version of the window. This preview is especially useful if you can't identify a window by its title alone.

Point to a taskbar button to see a window preview

If the taskbar becomes too crowded with buttons, then the buttons for the same program become grouped into a single button, as shown in the picture below. Click the button to see a menu of the items in the group, then select an item to make it the active window. For more information about taskbar buttons, see The taskbar (overview).

Three Paint windows grouped into one taskbar button

Using ALT+TAB. You can switch to the previous window by pressing ALT+TAB, or cycle through all open windows and the desktop by holding down ALT and repeatedly pressing TAB. Release ALT to show the selected window.

Switching windows with ALT+TAB

Using Windows Flip 3D. Windows Flip 3D arranges your windows in a three-dimensional stack that you can quickly flip through. To use Flip 3D:

Switching windows with Flip 3D

Note

Flip 3D and taskbar window previews won't work unless your computer is running Windows Aero, the premium visual experience of Windows Vista. Aero is not available in Windows Vista Starter or Windows Vista Home Basic. For more information, see How do I get Windows Aero?

Tip

You can also open Flip 3D by clicking the Switch between windows button on the taskbar. Then click a window in the stack to display that window, or click outside the stack to close Flip 3D without switching windows.

Now that you know how to move and resize windows, you can arrange them however you like on your desktop. You can also have Windows automatically arrange them in one of three ways: cascading, vertically stacked, or side by side.

Arrange windows in a cascade (left), vertical stack (center), or side-by-side pattern (right)

To choose one of these options, right-click an empty area of the taskbar, then click Cascade Windows, Show Windows Stacked, or Show Windows Side by Side.

A dialog box is a special type of window that asks you a question, allows you to select options to perform a task, or provides you with information. You'll often see dialog boxes when a program or Windows needs a response from you to continue.

Dialog box

Unlike regular windows, most dialog boxes can't be maximized, minimized, or resized. They can, however, be moved.