A system and process for managing the presentation of windows on the display screen of a computing device is presented. In general, this is a multiple-mode window presentation system and process that displays one or more of the peripheral graphic user interface (GUI) elements typically displayed on the display screen in addition to a window, such as the frame and title bar of the window and any task bar or side bar, in a first appearance mode when the window is maximized. However, when the window is displayed in a less-than-maximized size, one or more of the peripheral GUI elements are displayed in a second appearance mode which is substantially different from the first. In general the second appearance mode is designed to attract the attention of a user to the peripheral GUI elements, while the first mode is designed to avoid distracting the user from the content of the maximized window.