Glossary
M Magnifier Accessibility program that displays a window magnifying part of the screen.
mail client Program for sending and receiving e-mail messages, such as Outlook Express. Informally called an e-mail program.
mail rule See message rule.
mail server Computer that handles incoming or outgoing e-mail.
mailbox Location on your mail server where your e-mail is stored until you retrieve it using your mail client (such as Outlook Express).
mailing list E-mail-based discussion group.
Management Console See Microsoft Management Console.
manifest File that describes how an application is to appear while using the Luna interface(Windows XP theme).
manual checkpoint "Snapshot" of your Windows and program files created by the System Restore program at your command.
mapping Assigning a drive letter to a network drive on another computer.
Master File Table Table that stores information about each sector in an NTFS partition.
Maximize button Button in the upper-right corner of a window that is clicked to maximize the window.
maximized window Window that takes up the entire screen or is running at its maximum window size.
Media Player See Windows Media Player.
media pool Category of backup tape (or other media managed by the Removable Storage service), such as Backup, Free, or Import.
memory Temporary storage your computer uses for the programs you are running and the files you currently have open. Also called RAM.
memory address Number that uniquely identifies one piece of memory storage.
menu List of commands from which you can choose. See drop-down menu; menu bar; pull-down menu; shortcut menu.
menu bar Row of one-word commands that appears along the top of a window, just below the title bar.
message rule Rule that specifies a kind of message and a type of action to take when such a message arrives in your e-mail program.
Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Program that allows users with administrator accounts to manage the hardware, software, storage, and user accounts on the computer.
Microsoft .NET Passport Free account that identifies you to Microsoft for use with Windows Messenger, Microsoft's online support, and other Web sites.
Microsoft Network See MSN.
MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface, a standard for digital musical instruments and the computer hardware and software that works with them.
MIME Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, the most widely used method of including nontext information, such as attached files, in e-mail messages. See also S/MIME.
Minimize button Button in the upper-right corner of a window that is clicked to minimize the window.
minimized window Window that is not displayed, so that only the window's button on the taskbar appears on the screen.
minus box Small minus sign in a box that appears to the left of an item in a list. Click the minus box to hide its subitems.
mirrored volume Volume in which the data is stored redundantly on two or more disks, so that if one disk failed, the information is available on another.
MMC See Microsoft Management Console.
modem Device that connects to your computer to a phone line.
modifier keys Keys that you hold down while pressing another key: SHIFT, CTRL, and ALT.
motherboard See system board.
mount point Pathname to which a partition or disk drive has been assigned (mounted).
mounting Assigning a pathname to a partition or disk drive.
mouse Device for moving the mouse pointer on the screen and selecting the item the pointer points to.
mouse pointer Indicator on the screen that shows where the mouse is pointing. Also called the pointer or (incorrectly) the cursor.
MouseKeys Accessibility option that enables you to use the numeric keypad to control the pointer.
Movie Maker See Windows Movie Maker.
MPEG or MPG Moving Picture Experts Group format, a video file format based on the JPEG graphics file format.
Msconfig System Configuration Utility program, a Windows utility for editing Windows initialization files.
MS-DOS Microsoft Disk Operating System, also called DOS.
MSN Microsoft Network, Microsoft's online service. For a European ISDN line, the ISDN phone number.
MSN Explorer Utility that pulls together several of the free online services offered by MSN.
multiboot Or dual-boot. Computer with two or more operating systems installed. You choose which operating to boot (run).
multilink System that allows a single dial-up connection to use multiple modems and phone lines for greater speed.
multitasking Running multiple tasks at the same time. Windows is a multitasking operating system, because it can run many tasks (programs) simultaneously.
My Computer Folder that contains items for each disk drive on your computer, along with a few other special subfolders.
My Documents Folder intended for storing the current user's files. If you create a user account, Windows can create a My Documents folder for that account. Similar to your home folder in Windows 2000 and NT.
My Music Folder in which Windows Media Player stores audio files copied from audio CDs and other sources.
My Network Places Folder that contains shortcuts to shared folders on a local area network.
My Pictures Subfolder of the My Documents folder in which you can store graphics files.
My Recent Documents Folder with links to files you have used recently.
