Create and control browser windows.
Process: Main
This module cannot be used until the ready event of the app module is emitted.
// 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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
Modal windows
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:
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.
- 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.
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.
new BrowserWindow([options])
optionsBrowserWindowConstructorOptions (optional)
webPreferencesWebPreferences (optional) – Settings of web page’s features.
devTools boolean (optional) – Whether to enable DevTools. If it is set to false, can not use BrowserWindow.webContents.openDevTools() to open DevTools. Default is true.nodeIntegration boolean (optional) – Whether node integration is enabled. Default is false.nodeIntegrationInWorker boolean (optional) – Whether node integration is enabled in web workers. Default is false. More about this can be found in Multithreading.nodeIntegrationInSubFrames boolean (optional) – Experimental option for enabling Node.js support in sub-frames such as iframes and child windows. All your preloads will load for every iframe, you can use process.isMainFrame to determine if you are in the main frame or not.preload string (optional) – Specifies a script that will be loaded before other scripts run in the page. This script will always have access to node APIs no matter whether node integration is turned on or off. The value should be the absolute file path to the script. When node integration is turned off, the preload script can reintroduce Node global symbols back to the global scope. See example here.sandbox boolean (optional) – If set, this will sandbox the renderer associated with the window, making it compatible with the Chromium OS-level sandbox and disabling the Node.js engine. This is not the same as the nodeIntegration option and the APIs available to the preload script are more limited. Read more about the option here.session Session (optional) – Sets the session used by the page. Instead of passing the Session object directly, you can also choose to use the partition option instead, which accepts a partition string. When both session and partition are provided, session will be preferred. Default is the default session.partition string (optional) – Sets the session used by the page according to the session’s partition string. If partition starts with persist:, the page will use a persistent session available to all pages in the app with the same partition. If there is no persist: prefix, the page will use an in-memory session. By assigning the same partition, multiple pages can share the same session. Default is the default session.zoomFactor number (optional) – The default zoom factor of the page, 3.0 represents 300%. Default is 1.0.javascript boolean (optional) – Enables JavaScript support. Default is true.webSecurity boolean (optional) – When false, it will disable the same-origin policy (usually using testing websites by people), and set allowRunningInsecureContent to true if this options has not been set by user. Default is true.allowRunningInsecureContent boolean (optional) – Allow an https page to run JavaScript, CSS or plugins from http URLs. Default is false.images boolean (optional) – Enables image support. Default is true.imageAnimationPolicy string (optional) – Specifies how to run image animations (E.g. GIFs). Can be animate, animateOnce or noAnimation. Default is animate.textAreasAreResizable boolean (optional) – Make TextArea elements resizable. Default is true.webgl boolean (optional) – Enables WebGL support. Default is true.plugins boolean (optional) – Whether plugins should be enabled. Default is false.experimentalFeatures boolean (optional) – Enables Chromium’s experimental features. Default is false.scrollBounce boolean (optional) macOS – Enables scroll bounce (rubber banding) effect on macOS. Default is false.enableBlinkFeatures string (optional) – A list of feature strings separated by ,, like CSSVariables,KeyboardEventKey to enable. The full list of supported feature strings can be found in the RuntimeEnabledFeatures.json5 file.disableBlinkFeatures string (optional) – A list of feature strings separated by ,, like CSSVariables,KeyboardEventKey to disable. The full list of supported feature strings can be found in the RuntimeEnabledFeatures.json5 file.defaultFontFamily Object (optional) – Sets the default font for the font-family.
standard string (optional) – Defaults to Times New Roman.serif string (optional) – Defaults to Times New Roman.sansSerif string (optional) – Defaults to Arial.monospace string (optional) – Defaults to Courier New.cursive string (optional) – Defaults to Script.fantasy string (optional) – Defaults to Impact.math string (optional) – Defaults to Latin Modern Math.
defaultFontSize Integer (optional) – Defaults to 16.defaultMonospaceFontSize Integer (optional) – Defaults to 13.minimumFontSize Integer (optional) – Defaults to 0.defaultEncoding string (optional) – Defaults to ISO-8859-1.backgroundThrottling boolean (optional) – Whether to throttle animations and timers when the page becomes background. This also affects the Page Visibility API. When at least one webContents displayed in a single browserWindow has disabled backgroundThrottling then frames will be drawn and swapped for the whole window and other webContents displayed by it. Defaults to true.offscreen boolean (optional) – Whether to enable offscreen rendering for the browser window. Defaults to false. See the offscreen rendering tutorial for more details.contextIsolation boolean (optional) – Whether to run Electron APIs and the specified preload script in a separate JavaScript context. Defaults to true. The context that the preload script runs in will only have access to its own dedicated document and window globals, as well as its own set of JavaScript builtins (Array, Object, JSON, etc.), which are all invisible to the loaded content. The Electron API will only be available in the preload script and not the loaded page. This option should be used when loading potentially untrusted remote content to ensure the loaded content cannot tamper with the preload script and any Electron APIs being used. This option uses the same technique used by Chrome Content Scripts. You can access this context in the dev tools by selecting the ‘Electron Isolated Context’ entry in the combo box at the top of the Console tab.webviewTag boolean (optional) – Whether to enable the <webview> tag. Defaults to false. Note: The preload script configured for the <webview> will have node integration enabled when it is executed so you should ensure remote/untrusted content is not able to create a <webview> tag with a possibly malicious preload script. You can use the will-attach-webview event on webContents to strip away the preload script and to validate or alter the <webview>‘s initial settings.additionalArguments string[] (optional) – A list of strings that will be appended to process.argv in the renderer process of this app. Useful for passing small bits of data down to renderer process preload scripts.safeDialogs boolean (optional) – Whether to enable browser style consecutive dialog protection. Default is false.safeDialogsMessage string (optional) – The message to display when consecutive dialog protection is triggered. If not defined the default message would be used, note that currently the default message is in English and not localized.disableDialogs boolean (optional) – Whether to disable dialogs completely. Overrides safeDialogs. Default is false.navigateOnDragDrop boolean (optional) – Whether dragging and dropping a file or link onto the page causes a navigation. Default is false.autoplayPolicy string (optional) – Autoplay policy to apply to content in the window, can be no-user-gesture-required, user-gesture-required, document-user-activation-required. Defaults to no-user-gesture-required.disableHtmlFullscreenWindowResize boolean (optional) – Whether to prevent the window from resizing when entering HTML Fullscreen. Default is false.accessibleTitle string (optional) – An alternative title string provided only to accessibility tools such as screen readers. This string is not directly visible to users.spellcheck boolean (optional) – Whether to enable the builtin spellchecker. Default is true.enableWebSQL boolean (optional) – Whether to enable the WebSQL api. Default is true.v8CacheOptions string (optional) – Enforces the v8 code caching policy used by blink. Accepted values are
none – Disables code cachingcode – Heuristic based code cachingbypassHeatCheck – Bypass code caching heuristics but with lazy compilationbypassHeatCheckAndEagerCompile – Same as above except compilation is eager. Default policy is code.
enablePreferredSizeMode boolean (optional) – Whether to enable preferred size mode. The preferred size is the minimum size needed to contain the layout of the document—without requiring scrolling. Enabling this will cause the preferred-size-changed event to be emitted on the WebContents when the preferred size changes. Default is false.transparent boolean (optional) – Whether to enable background transparency for the guest page. Default is true. Note: The guest page’s text and background colors are derived from the color scheme of its root element. When transparency is enabled, the text color will still change accordingly but the background will remain transparent.
paintWhenInitiallyHidden boolean (optional) – Whether the renderer should be active when show is false and it has just been created. In order for document.visibilityState to work correctly on first load with show: false you should set this to false. Setting this to false will cause the ready-to-show event to not fire. Default is true.titleBarOverlay Object | Boolean (optional) – When using a frameless window in conjunction with win.setWindowButtonVisibility(true) on macOS or using a titleBarStyle so that the standard window controls (“traffic lights” on macOS) are visible, this property enables the Window Controls Overlay JavaScript APIs and CSS Environment Variables. Specifying true will result in an overlay with default system colors. Default is false.
color String (optional) Windows Linux – The CSS color of the Window Controls Overlay when enabled. Default is the system color.symbolColor String (optional) Windows – The CSS color of the symbols on the Window Controls Overlay when enabled. Default is the system color.height Integer (optional) – The height of the title bar and Window Controls Overlay in pixels. Default is system height.
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 Eventtitle stringexplicitSet 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:
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:
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: ‘session-end’ Windows
Emitted when window session is going to end due to force shutdown or machine restart or session log off.
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 EventnewBounds 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 EventnewBounds 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 EventisAlwaysOnTop boolean
Emitted when the window is set or unset to show always on top of other windows.
Event: ‘app-command’ Windows Linux
Returns:
event Eventcommand 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.
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-backwardbrowser-forward
Event: ‘swipe’ macOS
Returns:
event Eventdirection 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 Eventrotation 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 native new tab button is clicked.
Returns:
event Eventpoint Point – The screen coordinates the context menu was triggered at
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.
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)
Returns BrowserWindow | null – The window with the given id.
Instance Properties
Objects created with new BrowserWindow have the following properties:
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.
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.
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.
A boolean property that determines whether the window is excluded from the application’s Windows menu. false by default.
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.
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.
win.blur()
Removes focus from the window.
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.
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)
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
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).
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 @1920×1080) 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\(([\d]+),\s*([\d]+),\s*([\d]+)\)
- RGBA
rgba\(([\d]+),\s*([\d]+),\s*([\d]+),\s*([\d.]+)\)
- e.g. rgba(255, 255, 255, 1.0)
- HSL
hsl\((-?[\d.]+),\s*([\d.]+)%,\s*([\d.]+)%\)
- 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.
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.
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 }.
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 Rectangleanimate boolean (optional) macOS
Resizes and moves the window’s client area (e.g. the web page) to the supplied bounds.
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 returns the same Rectangle.
win.setEnabled(enable)
Disable or enable the window.
win.isEnabled()
Returns boolean – whether the window is enabled.
win.setSize(width, height[, animate])
width Integerheight Integeranimate 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.
win.getSize()
Returns Integer[] – Contains the window’s width and height.
win.setContentSize(width, height[, animate])
width Integerheight Integeranimate boolean (optional) macOS
Resizes the window’s client area (e.g. the web page) to width and height.
win.getContentSize()
Returns Integer[] – Contains the window’s client area’s width and height.
win.setMinimumSize(width, height)
width Integerheight 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 Integerheight 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)
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
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
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
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)
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
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
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 booleanlevel string (optional) macOS Windows – Values include normal, floating, torn-off-menu, modal-panel, main-menu, status, pop-up-menu, screen-saver, and dockfloating 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.
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
win.center()
Moves window to the center of the screen.
win.setPosition(x, y[, animate])
x Integery Integeranimate boolean (optional) macOS
Moves window to x and y.
win.getPosition()
Returns Integer[] – Contains the window’s current position.
win.setTitle(title)
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 FloatoffsetX 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:
const { BrowserWindow } = require('electron')
const win = new BrowserWindow()
const toolbarRect = document.getElementById('toolbar').getBoundingClientRect()
win.setSheetOffset(toolbarRect.height)
win.flashFrame(flag)
Starts or stops flashing the window to attract user’s attention.
win.setSkipTaskbar(skip) macOS Windows
Makes the window not show in the taskbar.
win.setKiosk(flag)
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 be used to listen to changes to tablet mode.
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 Integercallback Function
wParam Buffer – The wParam provided to the WndProclParam 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
Returns boolean – true or false depending on whether the message is hooked.
win.unhookWindowMessage(message) Windows
Unhook the window message.
win.unhookAllWindowMessages() Windows
Unhooks all of the window messages.
win.setRepresentedFilename(filename) macOS
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
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()
rect Rectangle (optional) – The bounds to captureopts 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 stringoptions 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).
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:
const { BrowserWindow } = require('electron')
const win = new BrowserWindow()
const url = require('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:
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 stringoptions 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.
Sets the menu as the window’s menu bar.
Remove the window’s menu bar.
win.setProgressBar(progress[, options])
progress Doubleoptions 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 cleareddescription 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)
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.
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 Functiontooltip 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 }.
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.showDefinitionForSelection() macOS
Same as webContents.showDefinitionForSelection().
win.setIcon(icon) Windows Linux
Changes window icon.
Sets whether the window traffic light buttons should be visible.
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.
Returns boolean – Whether menu bar automatically hides itself.
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.
Returns boolean – Whether the menu bar is visible.
win.setVisibleOnAllWorkspaces(visible[, options]) macOS Linux
visible booleanoptions 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 booleanoptions 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
Prevents the window contents from being captured by other apps.
On macOS it sets the NSWindow’s sharingType to NSWindowSharingNone. 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.
win.setFocusable(focusable) macOS Windows
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
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) 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.
Adds a vibrancy effect to the browser window. Passing null or an empty string will remove the vibrancy effect on the window.
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.
Set a custom position for the traffic light buttons in frameless window. Passing null will reset the position to default.
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
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.
Note 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.
Note 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.
Note The BrowserView class is deprecated, and replaced by the new WebContentsView class.
win.removeBrowserView(browserView) Experimental Deprecated
Note 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.
Note 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.
Note 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.