After creating a window, an application can set the window's size or position by calling one of several different functions, including SetWindowPlacement, MoveWindow, SetWindowPos, and DeferWindowPos. SetWindowPlacement sets a window's minimized position, maximized position, restored size and position, and show state. The MoveWindow and SetWindowPos functions are similar; both set the size or position of a single application window. The SetWindowPos function includes a set of flags that affect the window's show state; MoveWindow does not include these flags. Use the BeginDeferWindowPos, DeferWindowPos, and EndDeferWindowPos functions to simultaneously set the position of a number of windows, including the size, position, position in the Z order, and show state.
An application can retrieve the coordinates of a window's bounding rectangle by using the GetWindowRect function. GetWindowRect fills a RECT structure with the coordinates of the window's upper left and lower right corners. The coordinates are relative to the upper left corner of the screen, even for a child window. The ScreenToClient or MapWindowPoints function maps the screen coordinates of a child window's bounding rectangle to coordinates relative to the parent window's client area.
The GetClientRect function retrieves the coordinates of a window's client area. GetClientRect fills a RECT structure with the coordinates of the upper left and lower right corners of the client area, but the coordinates are relative to the client area itself. This means the coordinates of a client area's upper left corner are always (0,0), and the coordinates of the lower right corner are the width and height of the client area.
The CascadeWindows function cascades the windows on the desktop or cascades the child windows of the specified parent window. The TileWindows function tiles the windows on the desktop or tiles the child windows of the specified parent window.