A button control can appear alone or with a group of other buttons. When buttons are grouped, the user can move from button to button within the group by pressing the Arrow keys. The user also can move among groups by pressing the Tab key.

A user can select a button by clicking it with the mouse, pressing the spacebar when the button has the keyboard focus, or sending a BM_CLICK message. In most cases, a button changes its appearance when selected.

A button control is always owned by another window, usually a dialog window or an application's client window. A button control posts WM_COMMAND messages or sends WM_CONTROL notification messages to its owner when a user selects the button. For further information on messages generated, see Button Notification Messages. The owner window receives messages from a button control and can send messages to the button to alter its position, appearance, and enabled/disabled state.

To use a button control in a dialog window, an application specifies the control in a dialog template in the application's resource-definition file. The application processes button messages in the dialog-window procedure.

An application creates a button control in a client window by calling WinCreateWindow, specifying a window class of WC_BUTTON, and identifying the client window as the owner of the button control.