Chapter – 7 [Operating Systems (Windows)]- Notes

Q. What is an Operating System? What is its purpose? Discuss types of Operating Systems.

Operating System:

An operating system (OS) is a set of computer programs that manage the hardware and software resources of a computer. An operating system performs basic tasks such as:

• Controlling and allocating memory
• Prioritizing system requests
• Controlling input and output devices
• Facilitating networking and managing file systems.
• Example: Examples of the operating system are DOS, Windows 98, 2000, XP, windows 7, windows 10, Linux and UNIX etc.

Purpose/Objectives Of Operating System:

There can be many objectives of an operating system but a few important ones are discussed below:

• It manages the hardware resources (processor, memory, disk space etc) of the system.
• It manages the software resources (application programs, utilities etc) of the system.
• It provides a user interface.
• It provides the facility to use the hardware without knowing its detail.

Types Of Operating Systems:

On the basis of the user interface, there are two types of operating systems.

Graphical User Interface Operating System:

• In GUI operating system icons, windows, and buttons are used as visual components.
• These components or objects are used to perform different tasks.
• Users of these operating systems need not memorize commands.
• Users can perform a task like copying a file without writing a command.
• Example: Examples of GUI operating systems are windows, Linux, Solaris etc.

Command Line Operating System:

• In the Command Line operating system, users need to write a command to perform a certain task.
• To write commands user needs to memorize them.
• These operating systems are providing the textual interface.
• Example: Examples of Command Line operating systems are DOS (Disk Operating System), Unix etc.

A Comparison of Command-Line and GUI Operating Systems:

Starting to Use Windows Operating System:

• Windows is a Graphical User Interface operating system. It 1s used m many businesses, research organizations, and educational institutes.
• The first version was windows 1.01 and which was released in 1985.
• After five years, in 1990 windows 3.0 was introduced. It was a complete operating environment. It was providing a GUI that runs on top of DOS.
• In 1995 Microsoft released Windows 95. It was a complete operating system.
• Meanwhile, Windows NT (New Technology) was also introduced for networks. In 1998 a new version of windows was launched.
• Now today’s most common versions of windows 10

Q. What are the Objects of the Windows Operating System?

Objects Of Windows Operating System

To control windows working there are many objects. These objects help in providing a multitasking environment to the users. Following are the basic components of the windows operating system.

Desktop

• The work area of a windows operating system is called the desktop.
• Different icons, menus, and dialog boxes appear on the desktop.
• It is the main screen from where users can interact with the system.

My Computer

• It is a special icon on the desktop. It shows all the disks installed on a computer.
• Drives are displayed as icons in the My Computer folder.
• Using my computer folder, we can access our files and folders to store and retrieve data.

Recycle Bin

• A recycle bin, or trash can, is a temporary storage for files and folders that have been deleted.
• These files and folders are not permanently erased from the physical media.
• Typically, a recycle bin allows the user to browse deleted files, undelete those that were deleted by mistake, or delete them permanently (either one by one, or all at once).

My Documents

• On Microsoft Windows operating systems, My Documents is the name of a special folder. It is commonly used to store documents, music, pictures, downloads, and other files.
• It is the default storage location for a lot of application programs.
• This folder is visible on the desktop.

Windows Explorer

• Windows Explorer is an application that provides detailed information about your files, folders, and drives.
• You can use it to see how your files are organized and to copy, move, and rename files, as well as perform other tasks pertaining to files, folders, and drives.
• There are several ways to get to Windows Explorer.
• The simplest way is to right-click the Start menu or the My Computer icon and selects Explore. Alternatively, you can access it from the Start menu as described below.
• The difference between windows explorer and my computer is tree view control.
• In windows explorer tree view control is present on the left side of the window.

Internet Explorer

• Internet Explorer is a web browser. It is used to browse different websites.
• It is the part of windows operating system. It has very power full features with high security.

The Window

• It is a rectangular box.
• It is a resizable object.
• In the Microsoft Windows operating system, most of the objects are displayed in Windows.
• It is the basic building block of all graphical objects.
• Different applications have their own windows.

Control Panel

• Control Panel is a part of the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface which allows users to view and manipulate basic system settings and controls, such as adding hardware, adding and removing software, controlling user accounts, and changing accessibility options.
• The control panel is an independent program, not a folder as it appears, which is accessed from the start menu, and is stored in the system32 directory as control.exe under the Windows folder.

Start Button

• The Start Menu and Start Button are user interface elements in Microsoft Windows, which serve as the central launching point for applications. Start Menu provides
• A customizable nested list of programs for the user to launch
• A list of most recently opened documents
• A way to find files and get help, and access the system settings.

Q. Discuss the use of Mouse and Keyboard events in windows.

Use Of Mouse and Keyboard

• The mouse and keyboard are two very basic input devices.
• These two devices are used with almost every computer.
• Mouse is a point-and-draw device used with a GUI environment.
• The keyboard is a textual input device and is used with both GUI and command line systems.

Mouse Events

• Mouse events are those actions that are performed by the mouse.
• Following are three common events initiated with the mouse.

Left Click

• This event triggers when we press the left-click button of the mouse.
• Windows perform certain tasks against this action e.g. it is used to select an item.
• Another example can be to activate the start button by using the left-click button of the mouse.

Right Click

• This event triggers when we press right click the button of the mouse.
• Windows perform certain tasks against this action e.g. it is used to display the context menu about a particular object on which our mouse pointer lies.
• Another example can be to view the properties of an object right click option is used.

Drag

• Select an item, press the left-click button, and drag it from one location to another while keeping the left mouse button pressed.
• This facility is available only in a GUI environment. Mouse is the best device used to perform such tasks.

Keyboard Events

Keyboard events are those which occur with the help of the keys of the keyboard. Different application programs perform different actions against these events.

Key Up

• This event triggers when we release the already pressed key of the keyboard.

Key Down

• This event triggers when we press a key from the keyboard

Q. What are the features of Windows?

Features Of Windows

• Microsoft Windows is a Graphical User Interface operating system.
• In early versions of windows there was no network support but later ones have this feature. Here we are discussing a few features of windows.

Multitasking

• Performing more than one task at the same time is called multitasking e.g. while typing we are enjoying the music on our computer.
• Windows 10 has the capability to load multiple programs in memory at the same time and execute them concurrently.

Multiprocessing

• The ability to manage more than one microprocessor is called multiprocessing.
• Windows 10 has the capability to manage more than one microprocessor.
• In this environment operating system assigns different jobs to different microprocessors to perform. Multiprocessing systems are fast than uni-processor systems.

Multi-User

• A multi-user operating system allows more than one user to use it at the same time.
• Windows 10 is a multi-user operating system.

Plug and Play

• Plug and play refers to the capability to attach a device to a computer and start to use it.
• The operating system will automatically install and configure its drivers.
• Windows 10 has this feature. A mechanism is defined in windows 10 that automatically detects a new hardware device.
• There is a long list of drivers available with windows 10.

Networking

• Windows 10 provides complete networking support.
• It provides the features of establishing, maintaining and troubleshooting the network.