Working with wiring

This is a newbie question for sure but when working on say, power window and door light wiring do I need to completely disconnect battery?

YES! You risk damage to the vehicle, fuses and yourself if you don't

It depends on what you are going to do. If you are looking for a short, then you need the battery hooked up to trouble shoot it. If you are changing a relay or fuse, then the answer is also no. If you are planning to splice into the wiring, it depends on your skill level. In short, there is no correct answer, without knowing exactly what you have in mind. I often work on my cars with the battery connected, but I am experienced, and know what I am doing. If you don't know what you are doing, you can do a lot of damage quickly, that is going to cost a lot to repair. I suggest that you give more detail, and then we can properly advise you. When in doubt, then disconnect the battery, unless it is a modern car, where the battery keeps a lot of information in memory, that is lost when the battery is disconnected.

work on congers up all kind of images. but for most repairs say changing a component there is no need. it a simple unpug and plug back in thing. with the hot wires shielded in the plugs. but the older you go back the more you find exposed wiring fastened with a screw. so from 80 up your fairly safe. most of the 70s stuff was good also but go back any father and you need to be careful. you got to love a ambulance with a battery shut off. I have put on of the quick disconnects on a car I was working on just so it's easer to hook up and test and then disable again. I can tell you watch your ring around a hot wire!!!!

Ok well just to be safe I will just disconnect it. I was asking because I believe there is possibly a short somewhere because my passenger side power window will sometimes work sometimes not, right now the switch isnt doing anything at all. On the driver side the switch doesnt work at all.
When I got the car the driver side door panel was half way off so I took it off and theres a wire or two cut and a wire to something was loose.

the power windows had a few known issues in them. what your are experiencing is a open not a short. the short accrues when the hot wire is grounded resulting in it getting very hot and the smoke rolling out of places were it's burning off the insulation.

with a open situation the current flow is interrupt and the component will not work correctly. you really need a power source to find a open. the key points in the window motor are the plug in connectors off the switch and the motor. a lot of times they get loose or corroded. but most of the time on the drivers side it's the motor. the passengers side is the switch. the passengers side should work off the drivers door also. if it's intermittent from there also suspect the motor or a connection to it. the older switches could be taken apart and cleaned up. most of the time one could get them to function again. the key to electrical work is take one thing apart at a time and work your way from the source to the component. most of the time it's a poor ground.

Do not ever remove the power window motor, unless you have first secured the window regulator by bolting the unit together. You need the factory service manual to do this properly. If you decide to throw caution to the wind, and remove the window motor, you will also be throwing you fingers and hands into a meat cleaver, where permanent and painful damage Will occur.