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BrowserWindow

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BrowserWindow

Create and control browser windows.

Process: Main

This module cannot be used until the ready event of the app module is emitted.

js
// In the main process.
const { BrowserWindow } = require('electron')

const win = new BrowserWindow({ width: 800, height: 600 })

// Load a remote URL
win.loadURL('https://github.com')

// Or load a local HTML file
win.loadFile('index.html')

Window customization

The BrowserWindow class exposes various ways to modify the look and behavior of your app's windows. For more details, see the Window Customization tutorial.

Showing the window gracefully

When loading a page in the window directly, users may see the page load incrementally, which is not a good experience for a native app. To make the window display without a visual flash, there are two solutions for different situations.

Using the ready-to-show event

While loading the page, the ready-to-show event will be emitted when the renderer process has rendered the page for the first time if the window has not been shown yet. Showing the window after this event will have no visual flash:

js
const { BrowserWindow } = require('electron')

const win = new BrowserWindow({ show: false })
win.once('ready-to-show', () => {
  win.show()
})

This event is usually emitted after the did-finish-load event, but for pages with many remote resources, it may be emitted before the did-finish-load event.

Please note that using this event implies that the renderer will be considered "visible" and paint even though show is false. This event will never fire if you use paintWhenInitiallyHidden: false

Setting the backgroundColor property

For a complex app, the ready-to-show event could be emitted too late, making the app feel slow. In this case, it is recommended to show the window immediately, and use a backgroundColor close to your app's background:

js
const { BrowserWindow } = require('electron')

const win = new BrowserWindow({ backgroundColor: '#2e2c29' })
win.loadURL('https://github.com')

Note that even for apps that use ready-to-show event, it is still recommended to set backgroundColor to make the app feel more native.

Some examples of valid backgroundColor values include:

js
const win = new BrowserWindow()
win.setBackgroundColor('hsl(230, 100%, 50%)')
win.setBackgroundColor('rgb(255, 145, 145)')
win.setBackgroundColor('#ff00a3')
win.setBackgroundColor('blueviolet')

For more information about these color types see valid options in win.setBackgroundColor.

Parent and child windows

By using parent option, you can create child windows:

js
const { BrowserWindow } = require('electron')

const top = new BrowserWindow()
const child = new BrowserWindow({ parent: top })
child.show()
top.show()

The child window will always show on top of the top window.

A modal window is a child window that disables parent window. To create a modal window, you have to set both the parent and modal options:

js
const { BrowserWindow } = require('electron')

const top = new BrowserWindow()
const child = new BrowserWindow({ parent: top, modal: true, show: false })
child.loadURL('https://github.com')
child.once('ready-to-show', () => {
  child.show()
})

Page visibility

The Page Visibility API works as follows:

  • On all platforms, the visibility state tracks whether the window is hidden/minimized or not.
  • Additionally, on macOS, the visibility state also tracks the window occlusion state. If the window is occluded (i.e. fully covered) by another window, the visibility state will be hidden. On other platforms, the visibility state will be hidden only when the window is minimized or explicitly hidden with win.hide().
  • If a BrowserWindow is created with show: false, the initial visibility state will be visible despite the window actually being hidden.
  • If backgroundThrottling is disabled, the visibility state will remain visible even if the window is minimized, occluded, or hidden.

It is recommended that you pause expensive operations when the visibility state is hidden in order to minimize power consumption.

Platform notices

  • On macOS modal windows will be displayed as sheets attached to the parent window.
  • On macOS the child windows will keep the relative position to parent window when parent window moves, while on Windows and Linux child windows will not move.
  • On Linux the type of modal windows will be changed to dialog.
  • On Linux many desktop environments do not support hiding a modal window.
  • On Wayland (Linux) it is generally not possible to programmatically resize windows after creation, or to position, move, focus, or blur windows without user input. If your app needs these capabilities, run it in Xwayland by appending the flag --ozone-platform=x11.

Class: BrowserWindow extends BaseWindow

Create and control browser windows.

Process: Main

BrowserWindow is an EventEmitter.

It creates a new BrowserWindow with native properties as set by the options.

[!WARNING] Electron's built-in classes cannot be subclassed in user code. For more information, see the FAQ.

new BrowserWindow([options])

Instance Events

Objects created with new BrowserWindow emit the following events:

[!NOTE] Some events are only available on specific operating systems and are labeled as such.

Event: 'page-title-updated'

Returns:

  • event Event
  • title string
  • explicitSet boolean

Emitted when the document changed its title, calling event.preventDefault() will prevent the native window's title from changing. explicitSet is false when title is synthesized from file URL.

Event: 'close'

Returns:

  • event Event

Emitted when the window is going to be closed. It's emitted before the beforeunload and unload event of the DOM. Calling event.preventDefault() will cancel the close.

Usually you would want to use the beforeunload handler to decide whether the window should be closed, which will also be called when the window is reloaded. In Electron, returning any value other than undefined would cancel the close. For example:

js
window.onbeforeunload = (e) => {
  console.log('I do not want to be closed')

  // Unlike usual browsers that a message box will be prompted to users, returning
  // a non-void value will silently cancel the close.
  // It is recommended to use the dialog API to let the user confirm closing the
  // application.
  e.returnValue = false
}

[!NOTE] There is a subtle difference between the behaviors of window.onbeforeunload = handler and window.addEventListener('beforeunload', handler). It is recommended to always set the event.returnValue explicitly, instead of only returning a value, as the former works more consistently within Electron.

Event: 'closed'

Emitted when the window is closed. After you have received this event you should remove the reference to the window and avoid using it any more.

Event: 'query-session-end' Windows

Returns:

Emitted when a session is about to end due to a shutdown, machine restart, or user log-off. Calling event.preventDefault() can delay the system shutdown, though it’s generally best to respect the user’s choice to end the session. However, you may choose to use it if ending the session puts the user at risk of losing data.

Event: 'session-end' Windows

Returns:

Emitted when a session is about to end due to a shutdown, machine restart, or user log-off. Once this event fires, there is no way to prevent the session from ending.

Event: 'unresponsive'

Emitted when the web page becomes unresponsive.

Event: 'responsive'

Emitted when the unresponsive web page becomes responsive again.

Event: 'blur'

Emitted when the window loses focus.

Event: 'focus'

Emitted when the window gains focus.

Event: 'show'

Emitted when the window is shown.

Event: 'hide'

Emitted when the window is hidden.

Event: 'ready-to-show'

Emitted when the web page has been rendered (while not being shown) and window can be displayed without a visual flash.

Please note that using this event implies that the renderer will be considered "visible" and paint even though show is false. This event will never fire if you use paintWhenInitiallyHidden: false

Event: 'maximize'

Emitted when window is maximized.

Event: 'unmaximize'

Emitted when the window exits from a maximized state.

Event: 'minimize'

Emitted when the window is minimized.

Event: 'restore'

Emitted when the window is restored from a minimized state.

Event: 'will-resize' macOS Windows

Returns:

  • event Event
  • newBounds Rectangle - Size the window is being resized to.
  • details Object
    • edge (string) - The edge of the window being dragged for resizing. Can be bottom, left, right, top-left, top-right, bottom-left or bottom-right.

Emitted before the window is resized. Calling event.preventDefault() will prevent the window from being resized.

Note that this is only emitted when the window is being resized manually. Resizing the window with setBounds/setSize will not emit this event.

The possible values and behaviors of the edge option are platform dependent. Possible values are:

  • On Windows, possible values are bottom, top, left, right, top-left, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right.
  • On macOS, possible values are bottom and right.
    • The value bottom is used to denote vertical resizing.
    • The value right is used to denote horizontal resizing.

Event: 'resize'

Emitted after the window has been resized.

Event: 'resized' macOS Windows

Emitted once when the window has finished being resized.

This is usually emitted when the window has been resized manually. On macOS, resizing the window with setBounds/setSize and setting the animate parameter to true will also emit this event once resizing has finished.

Event: 'will-move' macOS Windows

Returns:

  • event Event
  • newBounds Rectangle - Location the window is being moved to.

Emitted before the window is moved. On Windows, calling event.preventDefault() will prevent the window from being moved.

Note that this is only emitted when the window is being moved manually. Moving the window with setPosition/setBounds/center will not emit this event.

Event: 'move'

Emitted when the window is being moved to a new position.

Event: 'moved' macOS Windows

Emitted once when the window is moved to a new position.

[!NOTE] On macOS, this event is an alias of move.

Event: 'enter-full-screen'

Emitted when the window enters a full-screen state.

Event: 'leave-full-screen'

Emitted when the window leaves a full-screen state.

Event: 'enter-html-full-screen'

Emitted when the window enters a full-screen state triggered by HTML API.

Event: 'leave-html-full-screen'

Emitted when the window leaves a full-screen state triggered by HTML API.

Event: 'always-on-top-changed'

Returns:

  • event Event
  • isAlwaysOnTop boolean

Emitted when the window is set or unset to show always on top of other windows.

Event: 'app-command' Windows Linux

Returns:

  • event Event
  • command string

Emitted when an App Command is invoked. These are typically related to keyboard media keys or browser commands, as well as the "Back" button built into some mice on Windows.

Commands are lowercased, underscores are replaced with hyphens, and the APPCOMMAND_ prefix is stripped off. e.g. APPCOMMAND_BROWSER_BACKWARD is emitted as browser-backward.

js
const { BrowserWindow } = require('electron')

const win = new BrowserWindow()
win.on('app-command', (e, cmd) => {
  // Navigate the window back when the user hits their mouse back button
  if (cmd === 'browser-backward' && win.webContents.canGoBack()) {
    win.webContents.goBack()
  }
})

The following app commands are explicitly supported on Linux:

  • browser-backward
  • browser-forward

Event: 'swipe' macOS

Returns:

  • event Event
  • direction string

Emitted on 3-finger swipe. Possible directions are up, right, down, left.

The method underlying this event is built to handle older macOS-style trackpad swiping, where the content on the screen doesn't move with the swipe. Most macOS trackpads are not configured to allow this kind of swiping anymore, so in order for it to emit properly the 'Swipe between pages' preference in System Preferences > Trackpad > More Gestures must be set to 'Swipe with two or three fingers'.

Event: 'rotate-gesture' macOS

Returns:

  • event Event
  • rotation Float

Emitted on trackpad rotation gesture. Continually emitted until rotation gesture is ended. The rotation value on each emission is the angle in degrees rotated since the last emission. The last emitted event upon a rotation gesture will always be of value 0. Counter-clockwise rotation values are positive, while clockwise ones are negative.

Event: 'sheet-begin' macOS

Emitted when the window opens a sheet.

Event: 'sheet-end' macOS

Emitted when the window has closed a sheet.

Event: 'new-window-for-tab' macOS

Emitted when the user clicks the native macOS new tab button. The new tab button is only visible if the current BrowserWindow has a tabbingIdentifier.

You must create a window in this handler in order for macOS tabbing to work as expected.

Event: 'system-context-menu' Windows Linux

Returns:

  • event Event
  • point Point - The screen coordinates where the context menu was triggered.

Emitted when the system context menu is triggered on the window, this is normally only triggered when the user right clicks on the non-client area of your window. This is the window titlebar or any area you have declared as -webkit-app-region: drag in a frameless window.

Calling event.preventDefault() will prevent the menu from being displayed.

To convert point to DIP, use screen.screenToDipPoint(point).

Static Methods

The BrowserWindow class has the following static methods:

BrowserWindow.getAllWindows()

Returns BrowserWindow[] - An array of all opened browser windows.

BrowserWindow.getFocusedWindow()

Returns BrowserWindow | null - The window that is focused in this application, otherwise returns null.

BrowserWindow.fromWebContents(webContents)

Returns BrowserWindow | null - The window that owns the given webContents or null if the contents are not owned by a window.

BrowserWindow.fromBrowserView(browserView) Deprecated

[!NOTE] The BrowserView class is deprecated, and replaced by the new WebContentsView class.

Returns BrowserWindow | null - The window that owns the given browserView. If the given view is not attached to any window, returns null.

BrowserWindow.fromId(id)

  • id Integer

Returns BrowserWindow | null - The window with the given id.

Instance Properties

Objects created with new BrowserWindow have the following properties:

js
const { BrowserWindow } = require('electron')
// In this example `win` is our instance
const win = new BrowserWindow({ width: 800, height: 600 })
win.loadURL('https://github.com')

win.webContents Readonly

A WebContents object this window owns. All web page related events and operations will be done via it.

See the webContents documentation for its methods and events.

win.id Readonly

A Integer property representing the unique ID of the window. Each ID is unique among all BrowserWindow instances of the entire Electron application.

win.tabbingIdentifier macOS Readonly

A string (optional) property that is equal to the tabbingIdentifier passed to the BrowserWindow constructor or undefined if none was set.

win.autoHideMenuBar Linux Windows

A boolean property that determines whether the window menu bar should hide itself automatically. Once set, the menu bar will only show when users press the single Alt key.

If the menu bar is already visible, setting this property to true won't hide it immediately.

win.simpleFullScreen

A boolean property that determines whether the window is in simple (pre-Lion) fullscreen mode.

win.fullScreen

A boolean property that determines whether the window is in fullscreen mode.

win.focusable Windows macOS

A boolean property that determines whether the window is focusable.

win.visibleOnAllWorkspaces macOS Linux

A boolean property that determines whether the window is visible on all workspaces.

[!NOTE] Always returns false on Windows.

win.shadow

A boolean property that determines whether the window has a shadow.

win.menuBarVisible Windows Linux

A boolean property that determines whether the menu bar should be visible.

[!NOTE] If the menu bar is auto-hide, users can still bring up the menu bar by pressing the single Alt key.

win.kiosk

A boolean property that determines whether the window is in kiosk mode.

win.documentEdited macOS

A boolean property that specifies whether the window’s document has been edited.

The icon in title bar will become gray when set to true.

win.representedFilename macOS

A string property that determines the pathname of the file the window represents, and the icon of the file will show in window's title bar.

win.title

A string property that determines the title of the native window.

[!NOTE] The title of the web page can be different from the title of the native window.

win.minimizable macOS Windows

A boolean property that determines whether the window can be manually minimized by user.

On Linux the setter is a no-op, although the getter returns true.

win.maximizable macOS Windows

A boolean property that determines whether the window can be manually maximized by user.

On Linux the setter is a no-op, although the getter returns true.

win.fullScreenable

A boolean property that determines whether the maximize/zoom window button toggles fullscreen mode or maximizes the window.

win.resizable

A boolean property that determines whether the window can be manually resized by user.

win.closable macOS Windows

A boolean property that determines whether the window can be manually closed by user.

On Linux the setter is a no-op, although the getter returns true.

win.movable macOS Windows

A boolean property that determines Whether the window can be moved by user.

On Linux the setter is a no-op, although the getter returns true.

win.excludedFromShownWindowsMenu macOS

A boolean property that determines whether the window is excluded from the application’s Windows menu. false by default.

js
const win = new BrowserWindow({ height: 600, width: 600 })

const template = [
  {
    role: 'windowmenu'
  }
]

win.excludedFromShownWindowsMenu = true

const menu = Menu.buildFromTemplate(template)
Menu.setApplicationMenu(menu)

win.accessibleTitle

A string property that defines an alternative title provided only to accessibility tools such as screen readers. This string is not directly visible to users.

win.snapped Windows Readonly

A boolean property that indicates whether the window is arranged via Snap.

Instance Methods

Objects created with new BrowserWindow have the following instance methods:

[!NOTE] Some methods are only available on specific operating systems and are labeled as such.

win.destroy()

Force closing the window, the unload and beforeunload event won't be emitted for the web page, and close event will also not be emitted for this window, but it guarantees the closed event will be emitted.

win.close()

Try to close the window. This has the same effect as a user manually clicking the close button of the window. The web page may cancel the close though. See the close event.

win.focus()

Focuses on the window.

On Wayland (Linux), the desktop environment may show a notification or flash the app icon if the window or app is not already focused.

win.blur()

Removes focus from the window.

Not supported on Wayland (Linux).

win.isFocused()

Returns boolean - Whether the window is focused.

win.isDestroyed()

Returns boolean - Whether the window is destroyed.

win.show()

Shows and gives focus to the window.

win.showInactive()

Shows the window but doesn't focus on it.

Not supported on Wayland (Linux).

win.hide()

Hides the window.

win.isVisible()

Returns boolean - Whether the window is visible to the user in the foreground of the app.

win.isModal()

Returns boolean - Whether current window is a modal window.

win.maximize()

Maximizes the window. This will also show (but not focus) the window if it isn't being displayed already.

win.unmaximize()

Unmaximizes the window.

win.isMaximized()

Returns boolean - Whether the window is maximized.

win.minimize()

Minimizes the window. On some platforms the minimized window will be shown in the Dock.

win.restore()

Restores the window from minimized state to its previous state.

win.isMinimized()

Returns boolean - Whether the window is minimized.

win.setFullScreen(flag)

  • flag boolean

Sets whether the window should be in fullscreen mode.

[!NOTE] On macOS, fullscreen transitions take place asynchronously. If further actions depend on the fullscreen state, use the 'enter-full-screen' or 'leave-full-screen' events.

win.isFullScreen()

Returns boolean - Whether the window is in fullscreen mode.

[!NOTE] On macOS, fullscreen transitions take place asynchronously. When querying for a BrowserWindow's fullscreen status, you should ensure that either the 'enter-full-screen' or 'leave-full-screen' events have been emitted.

win.setSimpleFullScreen(flag) macOS

  • flag boolean

Enters or leaves simple fullscreen mode.

Simple fullscreen mode emulates the native fullscreen behavior found in versions of macOS prior to Lion (10.7).

win.isSimpleFullScreen() macOS

Returns boolean - Whether the window is in simple (pre-Lion) fullscreen mode.

win.isNormal()

Returns boolean - Whether the window is in normal state (not maximized, not minimized, not in fullscreen mode).

win.setAspectRatio(aspectRatio[, extraSize])

  • aspectRatio Float - The aspect ratio to maintain for some portion of the content view.
  • extraSize Size (optional) macOS - The extra size not to be included while maintaining the aspect ratio.

This will make a window maintain an aspect ratio. The extra size allows a developer to have space, specified in pixels, not included within the aspect ratio calculations. This API already takes into account the difference between a window's size and its content size.

Consider a normal window with an HD video player and associated controls. Perhaps there are 15 pixels of controls on the left edge, 25 pixels of controls on the right edge and 50 pixels of controls below the player. In order to maintain a 16:9 aspect ratio (standard aspect ratio for HD @1920x1080) within the player itself we would call this function with arguments of 16/9 and { width: 40, height: 50 }. The second argument doesn't care where the extra width and height are within the content view--only that they exist. Sum any extra width and height areas you have within the overall content view.

The aspect ratio is not respected when window is resized programmatically with APIs like win.setSize.

To reset an aspect ratio, pass 0 as the aspectRatio value: win.setAspectRatio(0).

win.setBackgroundColor(backgroundColor)

  • backgroundColor string - Color in Hex, RGB, RGBA, HSL, HSLA or named CSS color format. The alpha channel is optional for the hex type.

Examples of valid backgroundColor values:

  • Hex
    • #fff (shorthand RGB)
    • #ffff (shorthand ARGB)
    • #ffffff (RGB)
    • #ffffffff (ARGB)
  • RGB
    • rgb\(([\d]+),\s*([\d]+),\s*([\d]+)\)
      • e.g. rgb(255, 255, 255)
  • RGBA
    • rgba\(([\d]+),\s*([\d]+),\s*([\d]+),\s*([\d.]+)\)
      • e.g. rgba(255, 255, 255, 1.0)
  • HSL
    • hsl\((-?[\d.]+),\s*([\d.]+)%,\s*([\d.]+)%\)
      • e.g. hsl(200, 20%, 50%)
  • HSLA
    • hsla\((-?[\d.]+),\s*([\d.]+)%,\s*([\d.]+)%,\s*([\d.]+)\)
      • e.g. hsla(200, 20%, 50%, 0.5)
  • Color name
    • Options are listed in SkParseColor.cpp
    • Similar to CSS Color Module Level 3 keywords, but case-sensitive.
      • e.g. blueviolet or red

Sets the background color of the window. See Setting backgroundColor.

win.previewFile(path[, displayName]) macOS

  • path string - The absolute path to the file to preview with QuickLook. This is important as Quick Look uses the file name and file extension on the path to determine the content type of the file to open.
  • displayName string (optional) - The name of the file to display on the Quick Look modal view. This is purely visual and does not affect the content type of the file. Defaults to path.

Uses Quick Look to preview a file at a given path.

win.closeFilePreview() macOS

Closes the currently open Quick Look panel.

win.setBounds(bounds[, animate])

  • bounds Partial<Rectangle>
  • animate boolean (optional) macOS

Resizes and moves the window to the supplied bounds. Any properties that are not supplied will default to their current values.

On Wayland (Linux), has the same limitations as setSize and setPosition.

js
const { BrowserWindow } = require('electron')

const win = new BrowserWindow()

// set all bounds properties
win.setBounds({ x: 440, y: 225, width: 800, height: 600 })

// set a single bounds property
win.setBounds({ width: 100 })

// { x: 440, y: 225, width: 100, height: 600 }
console.log(win.getBounds())

[!NOTE] On macOS, the y-coordinate value cannot be smaller than the Tray height. The tray height has changed over time and depends on the operating system, but is between 20-40px. Passing a value lower than the tray height will result in a window that is flush to the tray.

win.getBounds()

Returns Rectangle - The bounds of the window as Object.

[!NOTE] On macOS, the y-coordinate value returned will be at minimum the Tray height. For example, calling win.setBounds({ x: 25, y: 20, width: 800, height: 600 }) with a tray height of 38 means that win.getBounds() will return { x: 25, y: 38, width: 800, height: 600 }.

[!NOTE] On Wayland, this method will return { x: 0, y: 0, ... } as introspecting or programmatically changing the global window coordinates is prohibited.

win.getBackgroundColor()

Returns string - Gets the background color of the window in Hex (#RRGGBB) format.

See Setting backgroundColor.

[!NOTE] The alpha value is not returned alongside the red, green, and blue values.

win.setContentBounds(bounds[, animate])

  • bounds Rectangle
  • animate boolean (optional) macOS

Resizes and moves the window's client area (e.g. the web page) to the supplied bounds.

On Wayland (Linux), has the same limitations as setContentSize and setPosition.

win.getContentBounds()

Returns Rectangle - The bounds of the window's client area as Object.

win.getNormalBounds()

Returns Rectangle - Contains the window bounds of the normal state

[!NOTE] Whatever the current state of the window (maximized, minimized or in fullscreen), this function always returns the position and size of the window in normal state. In normal state, getBounds and getNormalBounds return the same Rectangle.

win.setEnabled(enable)

  • enable boolean

Disable or enable the window.

win.isEnabled()

Returns boolean - whether the window is enabled.

win.setSize(width, height[, animate])

  • width Integer
  • height Integer
  • animate boolean (optional) macOS

Resizes the window to width and height. If width or height are below any set minimum size constraints the window will snap to its minimum size.

On Wayland (Linux), may not work as some window managers restrict programmatic window resizing.

win.getSize()

Returns Integer[] - Contains the window's width and height.

win.setContentSize(width, height[, animate])

  • width Integer
  • height Integer
  • animate boolean (optional) macOS

Resizes the window's client area (e.g. the web page) to width and height.

On Wayland (Linux), may not work as some window managers restrict programmatic window resizing.

win.getContentSize()

Returns Integer[] - Contains the window's client area's width and height.

win.setMinimumSize(width, height)

  • width Integer
  • height Integer

Sets the minimum size of window to width and height.

win.getMinimumSize()

Returns Integer[] - Contains the window's minimum width and height.

win.setMaximumSize(width, height)

  • width Integer
  • height Integer

Sets the maximum size of window to width and height.

win.getMaximumSize()

Returns Integer[] - Contains the window's maximum width and height.

win.setResizable(resizable)

  • resizable boolean

Sets whether the window can be manually resized by the user.

win.isResizable()

Returns boolean - Whether the window can be manually resized by the user.

win.setMovable(movable) macOS Windows

  • movable boolean

Sets whether the window can be moved by user. On Linux does nothing.

win.isMovable() macOS Windows

Returns boolean - Whether the window can be moved by user.

On Linux always returns true.

win.setMinimizable(minimizable) macOS Windows

  • minimizable boolean

Sets whether the window can be manually minimized by user. On Linux does nothing.

win.isMinimizable() macOS Windows

Returns boolean - Whether the window can be manually minimized by the user.

On Linux always returns true.

win.setMaximizable(maximizable) macOS Windows

  • maximizable boolean

Sets whether the window can be manually maximized by user. On Linux does nothing.

win.isMaximizable() macOS Windows

Returns boolean - Whether the window can be manually maximized by user.

On Linux always returns true.

win.setFullScreenable(fullscreenable)

  • fullscreenable boolean

Sets whether the maximize/zoom window button toggles fullscreen mode or maximizes the window.

win.isFullScreenable()

Returns boolean - Whether the maximize/zoom window button toggles fullscreen mode or maximizes the window.

win.setClosable(closable) macOS Windows

  • closable boolean

Sets whether the window can be manually closed by user. On Linux does nothing.

win.isClosable() macOS Windows

Returns boolean - Whether the window can be manually closed by user.

On Linux always returns true.

win.setHiddenInMissionControl(hidden) macOS

  • hidden boolean

Sets whether the window will be hidden when the user toggles into mission control.

win.isHiddenInMissionControl() macOS

Returns boolean - Whether the window will be hidden when the user toggles into mission control.

win.setAlwaysOnTop(flag[, level][, relativeLevel])

  • flag boolean
  • level string (optional) macOS Windows - Values include normal, floating, torn-off-menu, modal-panel, main-menu, status, pop-up-menu, screen-saver, and dock (Deprecated). The default is floating when flag is true. The level is reset to normal when the flag is false. Note that from floating to status included, the window is placed below the Dock on macOS and below the taskbar on Windows. From pop-up-menu to a higher it is shown above the Dock on macOS and above the taskbar on Windows. See the macOS docs for more details.
  • relativeLevel Integer (optional) macOS - The number of layers higher to set this window relative to the given level. The default is 0. Note that Apple discourages setting levels higher than 1 above screen-saver.

Sets whether the window should show always on top of other windows. After setting this, the window is still a normal window, not a toolbox window which can not be focused on.

win.isAlwaysOnTop()

Returns boolean - Whether the window is always on top of other windows.

win.moveAbove(mediaSourceId)

  • mediaSourceId string - Window id in the format of DesktopCapturerSource's id. For example "window:1869:0".

Moves window above the source window in the sense of z-order. If the mediaSourceId is not of type window or if the window does not exist then this method throws an error.

win.moveTop()

Moves window to top(z-order) regardless of focus.

Not supported on Wayland (Linux).

win.center()

Moves window to the center of the screen.

Not supported on Wayland (Linux).

win.setPosition(x, y[, animate])

  • x Integer
  • y Integer
  • animate boolean (optional) macOS

Moves window to x and y.

Not supported on Wayland (Linux).

win.getPosition()

Returns Integer[] - Contains the window's current position.

[!NOTE] On Wayland, this method will return [0, 0] as introspecting or programmatically changing the global window coordinates is prohibited.

win.setTitle(title)

  • title string

Changes the title of native window to title.

win.getTitle()

Returns string - The title of the native window.

[!NOTE] The title of the web page can be different from the title of the native window.

win.setSheetOffset(offsetY[, offsetX]) macOS

  • offsetY Float
  • offsetX Float (optional)

Changes the attachment point for sheets on macOS. By default, sheets are attached just below the window frame, but you may want to display them beneath a HTML-rendered toolbar. For example:

js
const { BrowserWindow } = require('electron')

const win = new BrowserWindow()

const toolbarRect = document.getElementById('toolbar').getBoundingClientRect()
win.setSheetOffset(toolbarRect.height)

win.flashFrame(flag)

<!-- ```YAML history changes: - pr-url: https://github.com/electron/electron/pull/41391 description: "`window.flashFrame(bool)` will flash dock icon continuously on macOS" breaking-changes-header: behavior-changed-windowflashframebool-will-flash-dock-icon-continuously-on-macos ``` -->
  • flag boolean

Starts or stops flashing the window to attract user's attention.

win.setSkipTaskbar(skip) macOS Windows

  • skip boolean

Makes the window not show in the taskbar.

win.setKiosk(flag)

  • flag boolean

Enters or leaves kiosk mode.

win.isKiosk()

Returns boolean - Whether the window is in kiosk mode.

win.isTabletMode() Windows

Returns boolean - Whether the window is in Windows 10 tablet mode.

Since Windows 10 users can use their PC as tablet, under this mode apps can choose to optimize their UI for tablets, such as enlarging the titlebar and hiding titlebar buttons.

This API returns whether the window is in tablet mode, and the resize event can be used to listen to changes to tablet mode.

win.getMediaSourceId()

Returns string - Window id in the format of DesktopCapturerSource's id. For example "window:1324:0".

More precisely the format is window:id:other_id where id is HWND on Windows, CGWindowID (uint64_t) on macOS and Window (unsigned long) on Linux. other_id is used to identify web contents (tabs) so within the same top level window.

win.getNativeWindowHandle()

Returns Buffer - The platform-specific handle of the window.

The native type of the handle is HWND on Windows, NSView* on macOS, and Window (unsigned long) on Linux.

win.hookWindowMessage(message, callback) Windows

  • message Integer
  • callback Function
    • wParam Buffer - The wParam provided to the WndProc
    • lParam Buffer - The lParam provided to the WndProc

Hooks a windows message. The callback is called when the message is received in the WndProc.

win.isWindowMessageHooked(message) Windows

  • message Integer

Returns boolean - true or false depending on whether the message is hooked.

win.unhookWindowMessage(message) Windows

  • message Integer

Unhook the window message.

win.unhookAllWindowMessages() Windows

Unhooks all of the window messages.

win.setRepresentedFilename(filename) macOS

  • filename string

Sets the pathname of the file the window represents, and the icon of the file will show in window's title bar.

win.getRepresentedFilename() macOS

Returns string - The pathname of the file the window represents.

win.setDocumentEdited(edited) macOS

  • edited boolean

Specifies whether the window’s document has been edited, and the icon in title bar will become gray when set to true.

win.isDocumentEdited() macOS

Returns boolean - Whether the window's document has been edited.

win.focusOnWebView()

win.blurWebView()

win.capturePage([rect, opts])

  • rect Rectangle (optional) - The bounds to capture
  • opts Object (optional)
    • stayHidden boolean (optional) - Keep the page hidden instead of visible. Default is false.
    • stayAwake boolean (optional) - Keep the system awake instead of allowing it to sleep. Default is false.

Returns Promise<NativeImage> - Resolves with a NativeImage

Captures a snapshot of the page within rect. Omitting rect will capture the whole visible page. If the page is not visible, rect may be empty. The page is considered visible when its browser window is hidden and the capturer count is non-zero. If you would like the page to stay hidden, you should ensure that stayHidden is set to true.

win.loadURL(url[, options])

  • url string
  • options Object (optional)
    • httpReferrer (string | Referrer) (optional) - An HTTP Referrer URL.
    • userAgent string (optional) - A user agent originating the request.
    • extraHeaders string (optional) - Extra headers separated by "\n"
    • postData (UploadRawData | UploadFile)[] (optional)
    • baseURLForDataURL string (optional) - Base URL (with trailing path separator) for files to be loaded by the data URL. This is needed only if the specified url is a data URL and needs to load other files.

Returns Promise<void> - the promise will resolve when the page has finished loading (see did-finish-load), and rejects if the page fails to load (see did-fail-load). A noop rejection handler is already attached, which avoids unhandled rejection errors. If the existing page has a beforeUnload handler, did-fail-load will be called unless will-prevent-unload is handled.

Same as webContents.loadURL(url[, options]).

The url can be a remote address (e.g. http://) or a path to a local HTML file using the file:// protocol.

To ensure that file URLs are properly formatted, it is recommended to use Node's url.format method:

js
const { BrowserWindow } = require('electron')

const win = new BrowserWindow()

const url = require('node:url').format({
  protocol: 'file',
  slashes: true,
  pathname: require('node:path').join(__dirname, 'index.html')
})

win.loadURL(url)

You can load a URL using a POST request with URL-encoded data by doing the following:

js
const { BrowserWindow } = require('electron')

const win = new BrowserWindow()

win.loadURL('http://localhost:8000/post', {
  postData: [{
    type: 'rawData',
    bytes: Buffer.from('hello=world')
  }],
  extraHeaders: 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
})

win.loadFile(filePath[, options])

  • filePath string
  • options Object (optional)
    • query Record<string, string> (optional) - Passed to url.format().
    • search string (optional) - Passed to url.format().
    • hash string (optional) - Passed to url.format().

Returns Promise<void> - the promise will resolve when the page has finished loading (see did-finish-load), and rejects if the page fails to load (see did-fail-load).

Same as webContents.loadFile, filePath should be a path to an HTML file relative to the root of your application. See the webContents docs for more information.

win.reload()

Same as webContents.reload.

win.setMenu(menu) Linux Windows

  • menu Menu | null

Sets the menu as the window's menu bar.

win.removeMenu() Linux Windows

Remove the window's menu bar.

win.setProgressBar(progress[, options])

  • progress Double
  • options Object (optional)
    • mode string Windows - Mode for the progress bar. Can be none, normal, indeterminate, error or paused.

Sets progress value in progress bar. Valid range is [0, 1.0].

Remove progress bar when progress < 0; Change to indeterminate mode when progress > 1.

On Linux platform, only supports Unity desktop environment, you need to specify the *.desktop file name to desktopName field in package.json. By default, it will assume {app.name}.desktop.

On Windows, a mode can be passed. Accepted values are none, normal, indeterminate, error, and paused. If you call setProgressBar without a mode set (but with a value within the valid range), normal will be assumed.

win.setOverlayIcon(overlay, description) Windows

  • overlay NativeImage | null - the icon to display on the bottom right corner of the taskbar icon. If this parameter is null, the overlay is cleared
  • description string - a description that will be provided to Accessibility screen readers

Sets a 16 x 16 pixel overlay onto the current taskbar icon, usually used to convey some sort of application status or to passively notify the user.

win.invalidateShadow() macOS

Invalidates the window shadow so that it is recomputed based on the current window shape.

BrowserWindows that are transparent can sometimes leave behind visual artifacts on macOS. This method can be used to clear these artifacts when, for example, performing an animation.

win.setHasShadow(hasShadow)

  • hasShadow boolean

Sets whether the window should have a shadow.

win.hasShadow()

Returns boolean - Whether the window has a shadow.

win.setOpacity(opacity) Windows macOS

  • opacity number - between 0.0 (fully transparent) and 1.0 (fully opaque)

Sets the opacity of the window. On Linux, does nothing. Out of bound number values are clamped to the [0, 1] range.

win.getOpacity()

Returns number - between 0.0 (fully transparent) and 1.0 (fully opaque). On Linux, always returns 1.

win.setShape(rects) Windows Linux Experimental

  • rects Rectangle[] - Sets a shape on the window. Passing an empty list reverts the window to being rectangular.

Setting a window shape determines the area within the window where the system permits drawing and user interaction. Outside of the given region, no pixels will be drawn and no mouse events will be registered. Mouse events outside of the region will not be received by that window, but will fall through to whatever is behind the window.

win.setThumbarButtons(buttons) Windows

Returns boolean - Whether the buttons were added successfully

Add a thumbnail toolbar with a specified set of buttons to the thumbnail image of a window in a taskbar button layout. Returns a boolean object indicates whether the thumbnail has been added successfully.

The number of buttons in thumbnail toolbar should be no greater than 7 due to the limited room. Once you setup the thumbnail toolbar, the toolbar cannot be removed due to the platform's limitation. But you can call the API with an empty array to clean the buttons.

The buttons is an array of Button objects:

  • Button Object
    • icon NativeImage - The icon showing in thumbnail toolbar.
    • click Function
    • tooltip string (optional) - The text of the button's tooltip.
    • flags string[] (optional) - Control specific states and behaviors of the button. By default, it is ['enabled'].

The flags is an array that can include following strings:

  • enabled - The button is active and available to the user.
  • disabled - The button is disabled. It is present, but has a visual state indicating it will not respond to user action.
  • dismissonclick - When the button is clicked, the thumbnail window closes immediately.
  • nobackground - Do not draw a button border, use only the image.
  • hidden - The button is not shown to the user.
  • noninteractive - The button is enabled but not interactive; no pressed button state is drawn. This value is intended for instances where the button is used in a notification.

win.setThumbnailClip(region) Windows

Sets the region of the window to show as the thumbnail image displayed when hovering over the window in the taskbar. You can reset the thumbnail to be the entire window by specifying an empty region: { x: 0, y: 0, width: 0, height: 0 }.

win.setThumbnailToolTip(toolTip) Windows

  • toolTip string

Sets the toolTip that is displayed when hovering over the window thumbnail in the taskbar.

win.setAppDetails(options) Windows

  • options Object
    • appId string (optional) - Window's App User Model ID. It has to be set, otherwise the other options will have no effect.
    • appIconPath string (optional) - Window's Relaunch Icon.
    • appIconIndex Integer (optional) - Index of the icon in appIconPath. Ignored when appIconPath is not set. Default is 0.
    • relaunchCommand string (optional) - Window's Relaunch Command.
    • relaunchDisplayName string (optional) - Window's Relaunch Display Name.

Sets the properties for the window's taskbar button.

[!NOTE] relaunchCommand and relaunchDisplayName must always be set together. If one of those properties is not set, then neither will be used.

win.setAccentColor(accentColor) Windows

  • accentColor boolean | string | null - The accent color for the window. By default, follows user preference in System Settings. To reset to system default, pass null.

Sets the system accent color and highlighting of active window border.

The accentColor parameter accepts the following values:

  • Color string - Like true, but sets a custom accent color using standard CSS color formats (Hex, RGB, RGBA, HSL, HSLA, or named colors). Alpha values in RGBA/HSLA formats are ignored and the color is treated as fully opaque.
  • true - Enable accent color highlighting for the window with the system accent color regardless of whether accent colors are enabled for windows in System Settings.
  • false - Disable accent color highlighting for the window regardless of whether accent colors are currently enabled for windows in System Settings.
  • null - Reset window accent color behavior to follow behavior set in System Settings.

Examples:

js
const win = new BrowserWindow({ frame: false })

// Set red accent color.
win.setAccentColor('#ff0000')

// RGB format (alpha ignored if present).
win.setAccentColor('rgba(255,0,0,0.5)')

// Enable accent color, using the color specified in System Settings.
win.setAccentColor(true)

// Disable accent color.
win.setAccentColor(false)

// Reset window accent color behavior to follow behavior set in System Settings.
win.setAccentColor(null)

win.getAccentColor() Windows

Returns string | boolean - the system accent color and highlighting of active window border in Hex RGB format.

If a color has been set for the window that differs from the system accent color, the window accent color will be returned. Otherwise, a boolean will be returned, with true indicating that the window uses the global system accent color, and false indicating that accent color highlighting is disabled for this window.

win.showDefinitionForSelection() macOS

Same as webContents.showDefinitionForSelection().

win.setIcon(icon) Windows Linux

Changes window icon.

win.setWindowButtonVisibility(visible) macOS

  • visible boolean

Sets whether the window traffic light buttons should be visible.

win.setAutoHideMenuBar(hide) Windows Linux

  • hide boolean

Sets whether the window menu bar should hide itself automatically. Once set the menu bar will only show when users press the single Alt key.

If the menu bar is already visible, calling setAutoHideMenuBar(true) won't hide it immediately.

win.isMenuBarAutoHide() Windows Linux

Returns boolean - Whether menu bar automatically hides itself.

win.setMenuBarVisibility(visible) Windows Linux

  • visible boolean

Sets whether the menu bar should be visible. If the menu bar is auto-hide, users can still bring up the menu bar by pressing the single Alt key.

win.isMenuBarVisible() Windows Linux

Returns boolean - Whether the menu bar is visible.

win.isSnapped() Windows

Returns boolean - whether the window is arranged via Snap.

The window is snapped via buttons shown when the mouse is hovered over window maximize button, or by dragging it to the edges of the screen.

win.setVisibleOnAllWorkspaces(visible[, options]) macOS Linux

  • visible boolean
  • options Object (optional)
    • visibleOnFullScreen boolean (optional) macOS - Sets whether the window should be visible above fullscreen windows.
    • skipTransformProcessType boolean (optional) macOS - Calling setVisibleOnAllWorkspaces will by default transform the process type between UIElementApplication and ForegroundApplication to ensure the correct behavior. However, this will hide the window and dock for a short time every time it is called. If your window is already of type UIElementApplication, you can bypass this transformation by passing true to skipTransformProcessType.

Sets whether the window should be visible on all workspaces.

[!NOTE] This API does nothing on Windows.

win.isVisibleOnAllWorkspaces() macOS Linux

Returns boolean - Whether the window is visible on all workspaces.

[!NOTE] This API always returns false on Windows.

win.setIgnoreMouseEvents(ignore[, options])

  • ignore boolean
  • options Object (optional)
    • forward boolean (optional) macOS Windows - If true, forwards mouse move messages to Chromium, enabling mouse related events such as mouseleave. Only used when ignore is true. If ignore is false, forwarding is always disabled regardless of this value.

Makes the window ignore all mouse events.

All mouse events happened in this window will be passed to the window below this window, but if this window has focus, it will still receive keyboard events.

win.setContentProtection(enable) macOS Windows

  • enable boolean

Prevents the window contents from being captured by other apps.

On Windows, it calls SetWindowDisplayAffinity with WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE. For Windows 10 version 2004 and up the window will be removed from capture entirely, older Windows versions behave as if WDA_MONITOR is applied capturing a black window.

On macOS, it sets the NSWindow's sharingType to NSWindowSharingNone. Unfortunately, due to an intentional change in macOS, newer Mac applications that use ScreenCaptureKit will capture your window despite win.setContentProtection(true). See here.

win.isContentProtected() macOS Windows

Returns boolean - whether or not content protection is currently enabled.

win.setFocusable(focusable) macOS Windows

  • focusable boolean

Changes whether the window can be focused.

On macOS it does not remove the focus from the window.

win.isFocusable() macOS Windows

Returns boolean - Whether the window can be focused.

win.setParentWindow(parent)

  • parent BrowserWindow | null

Sets parent as current window's parent window, passing null will turn current window into a top-level window.

win.getParentWindow()

Returns BrowserWindow | null - The parent window or null if there is no parent.

win.getChildWindows()

Returns BrowserWindow[] - All child windows.

win.setAutoHideCursor(autoHide) macOS

  • autoHide boolean

Controls whether to hide cursor when typing.

win.selectPreviousTab() macOS

Selects the previous tab when native tabs are enabled and there are other tabs in the window.

win.selectNextTab() macOS

Selects the next tab when native tabs are enabled and there are other tabs in the window.

win.showAllTabs() macOS

Shows or hides the tab overview when native tabs are enabled.

win.mergeAllWindows() macOS

Merges all windows into one window with multiple tabs when native tabs are enabled and there is more than one open window.

win.moveTabToNewWindow() macOS

Moves the current tab into a new window if native tabs are enabled and there is more than one tab in the current window.

win.toggleTabBar() macOS

Toggles the visibility of the tab bar if native tabs are enabled and there is only one tab in the current window.

win.addTabbedWindow(browserWindow) macOS

  • browserWindow BrowserWindow

Adds a window as a tab on this window, after the tab for the window instance.

win.setVibrancy(type[, options]) macOS

  • type string | null - Can be titlebar, selection, menu, popover, sidebar, header, sheet, window, hud, fullscreen-ui, tooltip, content, under-window, or under-page. See the macOS documentation for more details.
  • options Object (optional)
    • animationDuration number (optional) - if greater than zero, the change to vibrancy will be animated over the given duration (in milliseconds).

Adds a vibrancy effect to the browser window. Passing null or an empty string will remove the vibrancy effect on the window. The animationDuration parameter only animates fading in or fading out the vibrancy effect. Animating between different types of vibrancy is not supported.

win.setBackgroundMaterial(material) Windows

  • material string
    • auto - Let the Desktop Window Manager (DWM) automatically decide the system-drawn backdrop material for this window. This is the default.
    • none - Don't draw any system backdrop.
    • mica - Draw the backdrop material effect corresponding to a long-lived window.
    • acrylic - Draw the backdrop material effect corresponding to a transient window.
    • tabbed - Draw the backdrop material effect corresponding to a window with a tabbed title bar.

This method sets the browser window's system-drawn background material, including behind the non-client area.

See the Windows documentation for more details.

[!NOTE] This method is only supported on Windows 11 22H2 and up.

win.setWindowButtonPosition(position) macOS

Set a custom position for the traffic light buttons in frameless window. Passing null will reset the position to default.

win.getWindowButtonPosition() macOS

Returns Point | null - The custom position for the traffic light buttons in frameless window, null will be returned when there is no custom position.

win.setTouchBar(touchBar) macOS

  • touchBar TouchBar | null

Sets the touchBar layout for the current window. Specifying null or undefined clears the touch bar. This method only has an effect if the machine has a touch bar.

[!NOTE] The TouchBar API is currently experimental and may change or be removed in future Electron releases.

win.setBrowserView(browserView) Experimental Deprecated

  • browserView BrowserView | null - Attach browserView to win. If there are other BrowserViews attached, they will be removed from this window.

[!WARNING] The BrowserView class is deprecated, and replaced by the new WebContentsView class.

win.getBrowserView() Experimental Deprecated

Returns BrowserView | null - The BrowserView attached to win. Returns null if one is not attached. Throws an error if multiple BrowserViews are attached.

[!WARNING] The BrowserView class is deprecated, and replaced by the new WebContentsView class.

win.addBrowserView(browserView) Experimental Deprecated

Replacement API for setBrowserView supporting work with multi browser views.

[!WARNING] The BrowserView class is deprecated, and replaced by the new WebContentsView class.

win.removeBrowserView(browserView) Experimental Deprecated

[!WARNING] The BrowserView class is deprecated, and replaced by the new WebContentsView class.

win.setTopBrowserView(browserView) Experimental Deprecated

Raises browserView above other BrowserViews attached to win. Throws an error if browserView is not attached to win.

[!WARNING] The BrowserView class is deprecated, and replaced by the new WebContentsView class.

win.getBrowserViews() Experimental Deprecated

Returns BrowserView[] - a sorted by z-index array of all BrowserViews that have been attached with addBrowserView or setBrowserView. The top-most BrowserView is the last element of the array.

[!WARNING] The BrowserView class is deprecated, and replaced by the new WebContentsView class.

win.setTitleBarOverlay(options) Windows Linux

  • options Object
    • color String (optional) - The CSS color of the Window Controls Overlay when enabled.
    • symbolColor String (optional) - The CSS color of the symbols on the Window Controls Overlay when enabled.
    • height Integer (optional) - The height of the title bar and Window Controls Overlay in pixels.

On a window with Window Controls Overlay already enabled, this method updates the style of the title bar overlay.

On Linux, the symbolColor is automatically calculated to have minimum accessible contrast to the color if not explicitly set.