I

icon: A small bitmap that usually represents a minimized application. Icons may also serve as symbols in warning messages or other windows. See also bitmap.
icon handle: A unique value of the HICON type that identifies an icon. See also icon.
iconic: Minimized. If an icon represents a minimized application, the application's window is said to be iconic. See also icon, window.
ideographic: A single character that represents a word, object or a phrase — for example, a single character that means "month." This term would apply to the Han script.
IMA: See Interactive Multimedia Association (IMA) and International MIDI Association (IMA).
image: A rectangular region on a video display that contains a graphical representation of an object. See also rectangular region.
impersonation token: An access token that has been created to capture the security information of a client process, allowing a server to "impersonate" the client process in security operations. See also access token, primary token.
import library: A .LIB file that contains information about one or more dynamic-link libraries (DLLs), but does not contain the DLL's executable code. The linker uses an import library when building an executable module of a process, to provide the information needed to resolve the external references to DLL functions. See also dynamic-link library, process.
information context: A device context used strictly for data retrieval; it cannot be used for any drawing operations. See also device context.
input buffer: A buffer containing a queue of input records with information about keyboard, mouse, and window-sizing events for a console. See also console.
input event: An event--such as a keystroke, mouse movement, or mouse-button click--that causes a console to place an INPUT_RECORD structure in its input buffer. A console process can get information about an input event by reading from the console's input buffer.
instance: An instantiation of a particular object type in a class, such as a specific process or thread. All instances of a given type have identical performance counters.
instance subclassing: A type of subclassing where an application replaces the window-procedure address of a single instance of a window with the address of a subclass procedure. See also subclassing, window.
integer atom: An atom that identifies an integer value. See also atom.
Interactive Multimedia Association (IMA): A professional trade association of companies, institutions, and individuals involved in producing and using interactive multimedia technology.
interlocked operation: The thread that performs an interlocked operation on a LONG variable is guaranteed to have exclusive access to the variable until the operation is complete.
International MIDI Association (IMA): The nonprofit organization that circulates information about the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) specification.
irregular curve: A curve that does not fit the perimeter of a conic section.
irregular shape: A shape composed of curves and straight line segments.
item name: A string that identifies a unit of data a server can pass to a client during a transaction.