BrowserWindow

A BrowserWindow is a class provided by the Electron framework that represents a native window in an Electron application. It extends the Node.js EventEmitter and allows developers to create, manage, and manipulate application windows that host web pages rendered by Chromium. The BrowserWindow constructor accepts an options object where properties such as width, height, title, icon, and webPreferences are specified. Among the webPreferences settings, developers can enable node integration, context isolation, and preload scripts to control the integration between the browser environment and the Node.js runtime.

The BrowserWindow has a life‑cycle closely tied to the Electron app object. Methods such as loadURL, loadFile, and reload load a specific URL or local file into the renderer process. Event handlers on the BrowserWindow instance enable developers to react to changes like 'ready-to-show', 'focus', 'blur', 'close', and 'closed'. The 'close' event can be intercepted to implement custom shutdown logic, while 'closed' signals that the native window resource has been freed.

Educative examples often show the creation of two windows: a main window and a secondary modal. By setting modal: true and parent in the options object, Electron guarantees that the modal window stays above its parent and blocks interaction until closed. The BrowserWindow class also provides methods to display native system dialogs, manage fullscreen and kiosk modes, and control window geometry and appearance.

In summary, BrowserWindow is the primary interface for creating and controlling windows in Electron. Its rich set of options and events gives developers fine‑grained control over hybrid desktop applications that combine web technologies with native system capabilities.