Window

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What is a Window in a Computer?

A window is a rectangular area on the screen where widgets of an application are displayed. A window traditionally has a titlebar with the name of the application and a close, maximize and minimize buttons and a border, although modern designs seem to be missing some of these features for some reason.

A screenshot of Microsoft Paint running in Windows 11.
A screenshot of Microsoft Paint's window. Its titlebar reads "Untiled - Paint."
A screenshot of the Windows File Explorer.
A screenshot of File Explorer's window. It has no titlebar, so there is no way to know what's the name of this application if you didn't know it already. Instead, it has tabs on its titlebar.

Windows shouldn't be confused with Microsoft Windows, that is, there is Windows, the operating system created by Microsoft which most people have installed on their PCs, and then there are windows, the graphical user interface concept, which can also be found in other operating systems such as MacOS and Linux Mint.

Operating systems normally keep track of every window that is currently open, displaying them in the taskbar. Most applications open a window when they start running, and stop running when their last window is closed. This means he lifetime of many applications is tied to the lifetime of their windows. However, there are exceptions. When the program of an application continues running after its last window is closed, we say that the application is running "in the background." In some cases, the application running in the background becomes an icon in the system tray found in the taskbar, and it's possible to reopen its window by clicking on it.

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