Input processing can enter a "system modal" state. In this state, all pointing device and keyboard input is directed to a special window, known as the system-modal window, or to one of its child windows (or a window owned by one of them). An "owned" window is a window that refers to its owner window set by using either the hwndOwner parameter of the WinCreateWindow function or the hwndNewOwner parameter of the WinSetOwner function. All other main windows behave as though they are disabled and no interaction is possible with them.

Note: The disabled windows are not actually disabled, but made noninteractive. No messages are sent to these windows when the system-modal state is entered or left, and their WS_DISABLE style bits are not changed.