[en] Recent advances in chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technology have made it possible to produce thin free-standing diamond foils that can be used as the window material in high heat load, synchrotron beamlines. Numerical simulations suggest that these windows can offer an attractive and at times the only altemative to beryllium windows for use in third generation x-ray synchrotron radiation beamlines. Utilization, design, and fabrication aspects of diamond windows for high heat load x-ray beamlines are discussed, as are the microstructure characteristics bearing on diamond's performance in this role. Analytic and numerical results are also presented to provide a basis for the design and testing of such windows