This kind of application window is opened by certain dialogs to display information about the progress of an operation while it is being performed. The process can also be interrupted or aborted. At the end of the operation, a final summary may be presented.
Almost the whole window itself of a progress window is used as a display area for the output that is generated by the process, except for the bottom line that provides two control buttons. The output usually consists of wrapped lines that have an operation dependent meaning. Each time a line is printed is also a possible breakpoint for the process to stop.
The button at the lower left is a toggle button that may be in one of two possible states, indicated by the current button label: Pause indicates that the process is currently running and may be stopped by activating the button. Go on, on the other hand, indicates that the process is currently stopped and may be continued by activating the button. The button does no longer have any effect after the process has finished its work.
Using the Close button, located at the lower right, aborts the operation first if it is not already finished and then causes the window to close. Note that an active process continues to run in the background (without a window) if the window is closed by other means! Note further that aborting an operation may leave the produced files or parts of it in an unusable state.
The optional final summary usually includes the time elapsed during the process (runtime) and a value that depends on the kind of operation that has been performed.
Every progress window is decribed in the following subsections: