background

On a computer screen, the color on which characters are displayed; for example, white characters may appear on a blue background.

In an operating system, a process that runs in the background generally runs at a lower level of priority than a foreground task and does not accept input from the user. Only multitasking operating systems support true background and foreground processing, but some applications can mimic it. For example, many word processors can print a document while still accepting input from the keyboard. In older systems, a process spends its entire existence in either the background or the foreground; in newer systems, you can change the processing environment and move foreground programs into the background, and vice versa.