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I always close "Properties" boxes in Windows by clicking the "Cancel" button, thinking this is somehow safer than clicking "OK". What makes me think that there might be a difference between "OK" and "Cancel" is that "Apply" is greyed out. To me, this suggests that "Apply" is not relevant here, whereas the "OK" and "Cancel" options still are. If there is only one possible outcome at this point, I would have expected just a single "OK" button to be used. Is "OK" the same as "Cancel" when closing a "Properties" box?

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Yes, if all you've done is look at the properties, and you didn't change anything, then "OK" and "Cancel" are equivalent.  Of course, if you have changed anything,

  • the "Apply" button becomes active,
  • clicking the "Apply" button saves the changes you made,
  • clicking the "OK" button saves the changes you made and exits the "Properties" window, and
  • clicking the "Cancel" button exits the "Properties" window without saving changes.
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    It's worth mentioning that this behavior isn't specific to this window only, all Windows dialogs with OK/Cancel/Apply buttons work like this.
    – gronostaj
    Commented Dec 28, 2018 at 8:00

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