What's going on with this exterior WINDOW???

[Darrick Lowe]

I'm not very good with window terminology, but when I took a look at this property, the "side jambs" were turned inside out on several windows?  Looks like some old tenant deliberately took a crowbar to it.  I tried bending them back into place, but they just sprung back out again. Can I just take some wood screws and anchor them down to the wooden frame? Or do I need to replace the whole window? Or can I just leave it as is. Not sure what they are functionally for… please let me know if you have any suggestions

[Jim K.]

@Darrick Lowe

That's not the window, that's the external window wrapping. Someone formed those strips off a roll of vinyl-covered aluminum trim coil and caulked them into place when the old window was replaced. Window wrapping covers the external trim of a window and supposedly turns the trim into a no-maintenance item.

A siding guy can replace it. It's not theoretically all that difficult to do yourself with a 60-buck trim coil from HD and some homemade shaping aids made out of clamps and dimensional lumber, but it's not a typical DIY thing.