The letter Q: A Glossary of Windows Terms

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Quality of Service (QoS) – A set of techniques and protocols for managing network services for a large corporation or business.

Quark – The company that makes QuarkXpress, which is a popular page layout program.

Quattro – The original name applied to Microsoft’s Windows Home Server. Windows Home Server is a server product created for home users for the purpose of backing up data and managing users.

Query – To request information from a database or to sort database results.

Queue – Often used to define documents in a list waiting to be printed. As print requests are sent to the printer, the printer software puts them in a queue and prints them in order (barring any special rights or permissions applied to the creator of those documents).

Queue Element – An item in a queue, such as a message waiting to be sent or a document waiting to be printed.

Quick Launch – An area of the Taskbar that can be enabled to access programs on a Windows-based PC quickly. You can drag and drop icons from the Start menu or Desktop to the Quick Launch area to add them.

Quick Tabs – A feature of Internet Explorer that allows you to see all open tabs in a single window. Quick tabs offers thumbnails of open tabs which can be clicked on to return to the tab quickly.

QuickTime – A free application created by Apple for playing and managing multimedia data including but not limited to movies and video.

QuickTime Pro – An upgrade to QuickTime, but not a free one. QuickTime Pro offers additional features and video capabilities.

Quick Views – In various Windows applications, a quick view menu offers a fast and easy way to change the view in a window. Often, you’ll change between thumbnails, lists, details, etc.

Quiet Mode – In Vista, Quiet Mode is offered as a way to silence User Account Control without actually turning it off. With Quiet Mode, administrators are not prompted (when logged on as administrators) to click Continue to verify a system change.

QWERTY – A term used to describe a specific type of keyboard. QWERTY describes the layout of the keys on the top left row of all standard keyboards.

This post is part of the series: Windows Glossary

Learn the definitions for the terms used in the Bright Hub Windows Channel. This series starts with the letter “A” and runs all the way to “Z”.

  1. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “A”
  2. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “B”
  3. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “C”
  4. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “D”
  5. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “E”
  6. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “F”
  7. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “G”
  8. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “H”
  9. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “I”
  10. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “J” and “K”
  11. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “L”
  12. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “M”
  13. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “N”
  14. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “O”
  15. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “P”
  16. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “Q”
  17. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “R”
  18. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “S”
  19. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “U and V”
  20. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “W”
  21. A Glossary of Windows Terms – “X”, “Y”, and “Z”