Kris Littlewood

Operating Systems

                                        

Other Windows Operating Systems:

Windows 98

Windows 95

Windows ME

Windows 2000

How an Operating System Works

Any desktop or laptop PC that you buy normally comes pre-loaded with Windows XP. Macintosh computers come pre-loaded with OS X. Many corporate servers use the Linux or UNIX operating systems. An Operating System could be found in smaller devices also. For example a Mobile Phone.

The purpose of an operating system is to organize and control hardware and software. I a PC it controls things like the CPU, hard drive and memory etc. In simpler systems, like mobile phones the operating system could control the keypad and battery or the connection to the service provider.

Its also provides a stable, consistent way for applications to deal with the hardware without having to know all the details of the hardware.

An operating system is mainly designed to be a task manager. It manages the hardware and software resources of various programs, which compete for the attention of the CPU and demand memory, storage and bandwidth for their own purposes.

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It also provides an interface for the user to run the application, called application program interface (API). This enables the programs to run on the computer. Even if a particular computer is unique, an operating system can ensure that applications continue to run when hardware upgrades and updates occur.

It is not just Microsoft who has created Operating Systems, although they are the most popular. Other operating systems include Apple, Linux, 3Com and Sun Solaris etc.

Device Management - Input and output Management

Drivers in the Device management part of the software manage the pathway between the motherboard and the ...

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