Glossary of window terms

Windows takes its name from the fact that it is built on a multi-window graphical interface, which means that Windows lets you have several windows open at once. To manipulate them, there are buttons, bars, and menus. It is important to know what their names are, but more important to know what they do.

Manipulating windows

In the Windows operating system (other systems may differ), windows include the following components:

• Title bar:
  
  This is the title of the window, and its background colour shows whether the window is active, i.e. whether someone is working in it (blue by default) or not (gray by default).
• Menu bar:
  
  The menu is where you choose what operations are to be carried out on the folder or its contents.
• Window sizing buttons:
  To minimise the window to the taskbar
  To expand the window to fullscreen
  To return the window to its normal size
  To close the window
• Scrollbars : These let you scroll through the folder when it contains too many objects to be seen all at once.
  
• The status bar: Displays information on the objects selected in the window.