There's a grammar rule in 日本語 called ko-so-a-do. こ(ko) refers to something physically near you in about arms reach or so. そ(so) means something about in your direct field of vision, but not terribly close. あ(a) is something too far away for the previous two, and ど (do) is along the lines of where.

That was pretty long, but applied to your question the difference is そこ means "over there", like you could point to it, and あそこ means "way over there", like it was further off.

The way my teacher put it, adding to the great explanation earlier:

If I'm talking to you - こ is by me そ is by you あ is not by either of us

これ this それ that あれ that over there

ここ here そこ there あそこ way over there

I believe asoko is "over there" and soko is "there".

Same, i dont understand

You can say まどはそこです or you can say まどはそこにあります. They essencially mean the same thing but the first one is shorter so it's preferred in most conversation. It's like the difference between "The window is there" and "The window is there existing".

No, good question though!

yes, like akai neko/red cat. You can sometimes change this by changing the literal idea as in heya wa nigiyakana/the room is lively

I think he said something like: SOKO is used when you can see the objetc, and ASOKO when you can't (plus something else).

Wow I can read some Japanese without knowing all the kanjis.

It would literally be 'as for there, window is. You could interpret it as 'there is the window' as opposed to 'the window is there.'

I think you'd need the particle 'ni' after soko in this situation

I think は refers to more general. が refers to more specific. So, 窓はそこです means "Window is there", but 窓がそこです means "A specifc (you would be pointing at it) window is there". I am still not 100% though.

I was wondering this too. I think this does work and that Duolingo just doesn't accept this solution.