Section 3.1. Universal Window Controls

3.1. Universal Window Controls

There are two categories of windows in Windows :

• Explorer windows . Windows Explorer is Microsoft's name for the desktop world of folders and icons. It's the home-base program that greets you when you first turn on the PC. When you double-click a folder or disk icon on your desktop, what opens is an Explorer window. This is where you organize your files and programs.

• Application windows . These are the windows where you do your workin Word or Internet Explorer, for example.

All of these windows have certain parts in common (see Figure 3-1).

Figure 3-1. All windows have the same basic ingredients , making it easy to become an expert in window manipulation. This figure shows an Explorer (desktop) windowa disk or folderbut you'll encounter the same elements in application windows.

Here are the controls that appear on almost every window, whether in an application or Explorer:

• Title bar . The window's title no longer appears here (Figure 3-1), as it did in previous versions of Windows. But this big fat top strip is still a giant handle that you can use to drag a window around.

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  Tip: If you double-click the title bar area, you maximize the window, making it expand to fill your entire screen exactly as though you had clicked the Maximize button described below. Double-click the title bar again to restore the window to its original size .

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• Window edges . Now they're fatter, making them easier to grab with your mouse. You can change the size of a window by dragging any edge except the top. Position your cursor over any border until it turns into a double-headed arrow. Then drag inward or outward to reshape the window. (To resize a full-screen window, click the Restore Down button first.)

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  Tip: You can resize a window in both dimensions at once just by dragging one of its corners. Sometimes diagonally striped ribs appear at the lower-right corner, sometimes not; in either case, all four corners work the same way.

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• Minimize, Maximize, [Restore Down] . These three window-control buttons, which appear at the top of every Windows window, are much bigger in Vista than before, which is supposed to make them easier to click. These buttons cycle a window among its three modesminimized, maximized, and restoredas described on Section 3.6.

• Close button . Click the X button to close the window. Keyboard shortcut : Press Alt+F4.

• Scroll bar . A scroll bar appears on the right side or bottom of the window if the window isn't large enough to show all its contents (as described in the box).