A maximized window is a window that has been enlarged to fill the screen. Although a window's size can be set so that it fills the screen exactly, a maximized window is slightly different: the system automatically moves the window's title bar to the top of the screen and sets the WS_MAXIMIZED style for the window.

A minimized window is a window whose size has been reduced to exactly the size of an icon or, in the Workplace Shell*, it disappears altogether (by default). Like a maximized window, a minimized window is more than just a window of a given size; typically, the system moves the (icon) minimized window to the lower part of the screen and sets the WS_MINIMIZED style for that window. The lower part of the screen is sometimes called the icon area. Unless the application specifies another position, the system moves a minimized window into the first available icon position in the icon area.

If a window is created with the WS_MAXIMIZED or WS_MINIMIZED styles, the system draws the window as a maximized or minimized window.

An application can restore maximized or minimized windows to their previous size and position by specifying the SWP_RESTORE flag in a call to the WinSetWindowPos function.