What is the purpose of operating system? There are two basic purposes of an operating system:
- It manages hard ware and software resources f computer. The resources include processor, memory and disk space etc.
- It provides a consistent way for application to interact with the hardware without knowing all the details of the hardware.
Briefly describe the evolution of windows operating system.
Microsoft windows are a graphical interface operating system. It is developed by Microsoft Corporation. It is widely used in business, educational institution and research organizations.
The first successful series of windows was windows 3.x series. Windows 3.x was an operating environment. It provided a GUI that executed on top of dos. It replaced the command-line interface with a point-and click system.
Microsoft released window 95 in 1995. It was a complete operating system for personal computers. Windows 98 was an improved version of Windows 95. It was released in 1998. It was more stable than Windows 95.
Microsoft also concentrated on networking features in windows. It released Windows NT (New technology) with extensive networking features. All later versions of windows operating systems are based on NT technology. These include windows 2000 (server and professional) and windows Xp.
Different objects of Windows Operating System
Windows operating system consists of different graphical objects. Different components of windows operating system are as follows:
Desktop
The on-screen work area that contains windows, icons, menus and dialog boxes is called desktop. The desktop is the entering point in windows. Desktop is the first object that appears when windows is started. Icons are small graphic that represents programs, drives, folders, and documents. It is used to start program, open a document, or access the contents of a drive or folder.
My computer
My computer icon is a graphical representation of everything on computer. It is used to view different resources of computer. The resources include drives, files and folders etc. it also contains control panel option that provides different tools to configure the computer.
Recycle bin
Recycle bin is a temporary storage area. It is used to keep deleted files. When a file or folder is deleted, it is not removed from the hard disk permanently. Windows moves it to recycle bin. The files remain in there until user recovers them or delete them permanently.
My Documents
My documents are a folder that is automatically created by windows during installation. It is used for saving documents. Many application programs like MS word use this folder as default location for storing files.
My Network Places
My network places is a folder on the desktop. It contains icons that represent all the computer systems connected via a network.
Windows Explorer
Window explorer acts as a file manager in windows operating system. It is used to manage files and folders on computer. It is an efficient way to locate and manage files on computer. Many actions can performed on files and folders using window explorer. It can be used to cut, copy, past, rename or delete a file or folder.
Internet Explorer
Internet explorer is a web browser, it is part of Microsoft windows operating system. It is used to access information available on the internet.
Control Panel
Control panel is the place to perform system management tasks. It includes installing/ uninstalling new hardware devices. It is also used to manage system resources through administrative tools. It is also used to manage system resources through administrative tools. It is also used to share printers and setup date and time etc.
Window
A window is the most important feature of windows operating system. It is the basic building block of all graphical objects. Windows views most of the graphical objects as a windows such as button, menu and toolbar etc. each application starts in its own window.
Start Button
Start button is used to access most of the programs installed on the computer. It is used to perform the following tasks easily:
- Open or search a document
- Change windows settings
- Manage files
- Getting help
- Maintain system etc.