Parts of a window

Whenever you open a program, file, or folder, it appears on your screen in a box or frame called a window (that's where the Windows operating system gets its name). Because windows are everywhere in Windows, it's important to understand how to move them, change their size, or just make them go away.

Parts of a window

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.