Editing Desktop environment (section)

== Implementation ==
On a system that offers a desktop environment, a [[window manager]] in conjunction with applications written using a [[widget toolkit]] are generally responsible for most of what the user sees. The window manager supports the [[user interaction]]s with the environment, while the toolkit provides developers a [[software library]] for [[Application software|applications]] with a unified look and behavior.

A [[windowing system]] of some sort generally interfaces directly with the underlying [[operating system]] and libraries. This provides support for graphical hardware, pointing devices, and keyboards. The window manager generally runs on top of this windowing system. While the windowing system may provide some window management functionality, this functionality is still considered to be part of the window manager, which simply happens to have been provided by the windowing system.

Applications that are created with a particular window manager in mind usually make use of a [[windowing toolkit]], generally provided with the operating system or window manager. A windowing toolkit gives applications access to [[GUI widget|widgets]] that allow the user to interact graphically with the application in a consistent way.