Definition of

Minimize

Window

The idea of ​​minimizing is used in the field of computing.

Minimize is a verb that refers to reducing something as much as possible or removing its importance . For example: “We will have to build a higher wall to minimize the consequences of a possible flood” , “It bothers me that Ramírez always tried to minimize my work” , “It is not about minimizing the achievement, but the team faced very "inferior."

Minimization is usually associated with a reduction , whether physical or symbolic. If you want to minimize the space that furniture takes up in a room, you will have to find smaller pieces that cover a smaller surface area. In this way, the space allocated to furniture will have been minimized.

Concept of minimizing

The action of minimizing can also refer to something abstract or symbolic . Many times it is said that something has been minimized when its significance is reduced. If a tennis player becomes champion in a tournament and a journalist clarifies that he faced lower-ranked players and that the winner had the obligation to triumph because he was the favorite, he will have minimized the achievement and significance of the conquest.

In a similar sense, if a subject advises another to minimize the importance of the criticism he receives from his coworkers, he is suggesting that he go about his daily life without paying attention to the rejection.

Operating system

Minimize refers to reduce or shrink.

The term in computing

For computing , minimizing is one of the options offered by those computer programs ( software ) that present windows in their graphical environment, such as the Windows operating system. Minimizing is making the window shrink until it disappears from the user's view, being reduced to a button on the taskbar. The opposite is to maximize (enlarge) the window so that it takes up more space on the screen.

The concept of minimizing, used by all the most popular operating systems, such as Windows , Mac OS and Ubuntu , is closely linked to that of multitasking (a term that comes from the English multitask ), which refers to the ability to execute more than one process. simultaneously .

The latter is not always necessarily true, at least not from any point of view, since it generally does not mean that in the same fraction of time the processes are running in parallel, but rather that they alternate constantly, to give the sensation of coexisting.

Minimize and maximize

Minimizing and maximizing are two actions that have an impact on the operating system, since they tell it to which application, to which process, it should pay the most attention and dedicate the greatest amount of available resources. For this reason, on not very powerful computers, it is common that they do not run very smoothly, despite involving supposedly active programs.

One of the advantages of being able to minimize an application is related to order : especially today, most users tend to have many windows open at the same time, if there was no way to hide them, it would become very difficult to work with. a certain degree of organization. It is worth mentioning that some programs do not offer the possibility of adjusting the size of their display directly, or of maximizing or minimizing, either because they hide the corresponding buttons or because they are presented in full screen (this is the most common case of video games). for PC).

Currently, portable devices known as smartphones (which could be translated as smart phones ) are very popular, to the point that it has become almost impossible to find people who go out without one of these small hybrids between a computer and a telephone. Their operating systems , given the size of the screens, do not include the well-known minimize and maximize buttons, although when moving from one application to another, these actions usually occur without the user necessarily being aware of it.