Meaning – The term ‘foreground task’ refers to the task that the user is currently interacting with. Normally, when the computer is in use, there are multiple processes running at the same time, thanks to the immense processing power that the computer has at its disposal. However, the user might be interacting with only one process at a time, while the rest keep running in the background, until they are activated and brought to the fore, by the user.
The process that is on the top of the process list, and the one that the user is currently interacting with, is termed as the foreground process.
The task that is brought to the foreground may be decided by the user or can be initiated by the operating system, in case there is a task that required immediate attention.
Example of usage – “The user had to switch between the different processes to the foreground, to identify the one that was causing the most problems.”
