Interface and system for manipulating thumbnails of live windows in a window manager

A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

• displaying a source window on a display, the source window comprising content that is capable of being modified;
• displaying a destination window wherein at least a portion of the destination window contains a thumbnail containing content that is substantially similar to at least a portion of the content of the source window;
• and
• modifying the content of the source window, wherein the modification of the source window is displayed in the thumbnail.

A system for displaying a window on a display device, the system comprising:

• a display for displaying a source window comprising content that is capable of being modified and a destination window corresponding to said source window;
• a manager for registering a thumbnail, the thumbnail being in a destination window and corresponding to at least a portion of the source window, said registering comprising:
• receiving a window handle for said source window;
• establishing an association between the source window and the thumbnail so that at least a portion of the content of the source window is drawn into the thumbnail;
• receiving a window size parameter corresponding to the source window and storing the source window at a size corresponding to the size parameter;
• and
• receiving a unique handle representing the association between the source window and the thumbnail;
• a processor for modifying the content of the source window, wherein the modification of the source window is displayed in a corresponding portion of the thumbnail, said modifying comprising:
• determining at least a portion of the source window to draw into the thumbnail based on a first parameter for defining at least a portion of the source window;
• determining the thumbnail to render based on a second parameter for defining at least a portion of the destination window in which to render the thumbnail;
• receiving a control value and setting the opacity of at least a portion of the thumbnail based on the value of the control value;
• receiving a Boolean value and setting the visibility of the at least a portion of the thumbnail based on the Boolean value.