For either case:

document.getElementById('body');

// or

window.document.getElementById('body');

I get error TS2304: Cannot find name 'window'.

Am I missing something in tsconfig.json for a definition file I should install?

I get the message when running tsc and in vscode

tsconfig.json:

{

    compilerOptions: {

        allowJs: true,

        emitDecoratorMetadata: true,

        experimentalDecorators: true,

        jsx: react,

        module: commonjs,

        moduleResolution: node,

        noEmitOnError: true,

        noImplicitAny: false,

        sourceMap: true,

        suppressImplicitAnyIndexErrors: true,

        target: ES2016,

        typeRoots: [

            node_modules/@types/,

            typings/index.d.ts

        ]

    },

    exclude: [

        node_modules,

        **/*-aot.ts

    ]

}

My Answer:
For use with tsconfig.json I target es5 and use lib: [es2015, dom]