A+ Guide to Managing and

Maintaining Your PC, 7e

Chapter 2
Introducing Operating Systems
 Objectives

• Learn about the various operating systems and the

differences between them
• Learn about the components of Windows operating
systems
• Learn how operating systems interface with users,
files and folders, applications, and hardware

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 2

 Operating Systems Past And Present

• Operating system (OS) software

– Controls a computer
• OS services
– Manages hardware
– Runs applications
– Provides an interface for users
– Retrieves and manipulates files
• OS acts as a “middleman”
• Computer needs only one operating system

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 3

 Figure 2-1 Users and applications depend on the OS to relate to all
applications and hardware components
Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 4

 DOS (Disk Operating System)

• First OS used by IBM computers/compatibles

• Command line driven set of programs
• Outdated as desktop computer operating system
– Still available on troubleshooting disks or CDs

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 5

 DOS with Windows 3.X
• Refers to Windows 3.1 and windows 3.11
• Uses DOS as the operating system
• Provides user friendly intermediate program
between:
– DOS, applications, and the user
• Long lasting features provided:
– Graphical user interface (GUI)
– Windows desktop
– Windows concept
– Ability to keep more than one application open at the
same time
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 6
 Figure 2-3 Windows 3.x was layered between DOS and the user
and applications to provide a graphics interface for the user and
a multitasking environment for applications
Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 7

 Windows 9x/ME

• Refers to Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me

• True operating system
– Combines DOS core with GUI

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 8

 Windows NT

• Two versions of Windows NT (New Technology):

– Windows NT Workstation for desktops
– Windows NT Server to control a network
• Microsoft completely rewrote OS core
– Totally eliminates DOS core
– Introduced many new problems
• First Windows OS using 32 bits at a time

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 9

 Windows 2000
• Upgrades Windows NT (desktop and server)
• Came in several versions
– Popular desktop OS
• Improvements
– Stable environment, Plug and Play support
– Device Manager, Recovery Console, Active Directory
– Better network support
– Features specifically targeting notebook computers
• Targeted towards corporate environment
• Not backward compatible

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 10

 Windows XP

• Integrates Windows 9x/Me and Windows 2000

• Two main versions: Home Edition and Professional
• Noteworthy new features:
– Allows multiple users to log on simultaneously
• Each with their own applications open
– Incorporates Windows Messenger and Media Player
– Adds advanced security, such as Windows Firewall
• Stable
– Service pack: major update or fix to an OS
– Patch: minor fix
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 11
 Windows Vista
• Upgrade from Windows XP
– Comes in five versions
• Aero user interface
– New 3D user interface (not available on all versions)
• Windows XP Start button
– Replaced by Vista sphere with a Windows flag
• Complaints
– Lack of backward compatibility
– Computer resources required
– Slow performance

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 12

 Windows 7

• Next generation of Microsoft OS

• Should correct Vista complaints
• Expected to run on netbooks
– Low-end inexpensive laptop
• Small 9- or 10-inch screen, no optical drive
– Generally used for Web browsing, e-mail, word
processing

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 13

 MAC OS
• Introduced in 1984 with Macintosh computers
– Current version: Mac OS X (ten)
– Can work on Intel-based computers
• Boot Camp dual boot software by Apple available
• VMWare Fusion creates a virtual machine
• Features:
– Support for graphics and multimedia capabilities
– Use of the Finder program to provide the desktop
– Superior Plug and Play capabilities
– Excellent support for multitasking

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 14

 Linux
• Variation on UNIX
• OS kernel and source code freely distributed
• Many popular distributions
• Well suited for server applications
– Sometimes used as a desktop OS
• Not easy to install, use
• Fewer applications than Windows, MAC OS
• Used on netbooks (Small footprint)
• Embedded operating system on mobile devices
• Excellent training tool for learning Unix

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 15

 Linux (cont’d.)
• Shell
– Relates to the user and to applications
• First Linux, Unix shells
– Commands entered at a command prompt
• Two popular command-line shells for Unix, Linux
– Older Bourne shell, newer Bourne-Again shell
(BASH)
• Many users prefer Windows-style GUI desktop
– Built using X Windows
– Most popular GUI shells
• GNOME, KDE, Xfce
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 16
 How Windows 2000/XP/Vista Works

• Windows 2000, XP, Vista

– Three evolutions
• Same basic operating system
– Many things in common
• Way they are built
• Main components
• User interface
• Other interfaces
• Four main functions

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 17

 What an Operating System Does

• Four functions common to all operating systems

– Providing a user interface
– Managing files
– Managing applications
– Managing hardware

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 18

 Components of Windows

• Shell: relates to the user and to applications

• Kernel: responsible for interacting with hardware
• Configuration data
– Information OS keeps about hardware, applications,
data, users
• Shell made up of subsystems
– Operate in user mode
• Subsystems have limited access to system information
and can access hardware only through other OS
services
– Win32 security subsystem
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 19
 Figure 2-10 Inside an operating system, different components
perform various functions
Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 20

 Components of Windows (cont’d.)

• Windows kernel
– More power to communicate with hardware devices
than the shell has
– Operates in kernel mode
– Applications cannot get to hardware devices without
the shell passing those requests to the kernel
– Two main components
• The HAL (hardware abstraction layer)
• Executive services interface

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 21

 Components of Windows (cont’d.)

• Configuration data
– Used when OS first loaded and when needed by
hardware, applications, users
– Stored in:
• Registry
• Initialization files

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 22

 How Windows Manages Applications

• Launching an application
– Move from hard drive into memory
• Process
– Program running, together with the system resources
assigned to it
– Request resources through Win32 subsystem
• Called a thread
• Thread
– Single task
• Multitasking
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 23
 Figure 2-11 A process with two threads
Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 24

 How Windows Manages Hardware

• Device drivers
– Small programs stored on the hard drive
– Allow kernel to communicate with hardware
– Provided by OS, vendors
• At system startup:
– BIOS provides instructions to the CPU for device
communication
• Drivers written to work for a specific OS
• Four types of software
– Operating system, applications, device drivers, BIOS
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 25
 Figure 2-12 An OS relates to hardware by way of device drivers
and possibly system BIOS
Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 26

 How Many Bits At A Time?

• Central Processing Unit (CPU)

– Also called a processor
– Partly determines which operating system can be
installed
• Major consideration
– Number of bits CPU processes at a time
– Intel or AMD desktop and laptop processors sold
today
• Process 64 bits at a time
– Older processors handled only 32 bits

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 27

 How Many Bits At A Time? (cont’d.)
• 32-bit processors
– x86 processors
• Intel used the number 86 in the model number of these
earlier processors
• Processors using underlying 32-bit processing with
64-bit instructions
– Hybrid processors known as x86-64 bit processors
– Handle a 32-bit OS or a 64-bit OS
• 64-bit processors
– Fully implement 64-bit processing
• Intel Itanium and Xeon processors

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 28

 How Many Bits At A Time? (cont’d.)

• Windows 2000: 32-bit OS

• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition: 64-bit OS
– All other Windows XP editions: 32-bit OSs
• Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business,
Enterprise, Ultimate editions
– 32-bit or 64-bit versions
• Modern desktop, laptop processors today
– Can handle either a 32-bit or 64-bit OS
• Sometimes referred to as an x86 or x64 OS

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 29

 How Many Bits At A Time? (cont’d.)

• Discussion points
– 64-bit processing is faster than 32-bit processing
– 64-bit OS requires that device drivers operating in
kernel mode be 64-bit drivers
– Application is compiled to process 64 bits or 32 bits
– 32-bit OS can only address up to 4 GB of memory
– Benefit from 64-bit computing if:
• Many applications open at the same time
• You have high computing needs and enough hard drive
space and memory

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 30

 How Many Bits At A Time? (cont’d.)

• Manufacturers often install a 32-bit OS on a

computer that could support a 64-bit OS
• 64-bit computing tips
– x86 refers to 32-bit processors and to 32-bit operating
systems
– x86-64 refers to a 64-bit OS or to 32-bit processors
that process 64-bit instructions
– IA64 refers specifically to 64-bit Intel processors
– x64 refers to 64-bit operating systems

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 31

 Using Windows 2000/XP/Vista

• PC support technician
– Needs to be a Windows power user
• Technician knowledge required
– How Windows desktop organized and how it works
– How to use Windows utilities
• My Computer, Windows Explorer, Control Panel,
System Information, Command Prompt window

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 32

 The Windows Vista Desktop
• Primary tool provided by the Windows shell
• Start menu
– Username shown at the top right
– Applications at the top left
• “pinned” to the menu
– Applications used often
• Listed below the pinned applications (can change)
– User-oriented applications
• In the white column on the left side
– Use files and OS utilities
• Entries in the black column on the right side

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 33

 Figure 2-15 The Vista desktop and Start menu
Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 34

 The Windows Vista Desktop (cont’d.)
• Vista sidebar and gadgets
– New with Windows Vista
– Windows Sidebar Properties box used to:
• Start the sidebar each time Windows starts
• Decide where sidebar appears
• Remove gadgets in sidebar
• Four ways to launch an application
– Use the Start menu
– Use the Search box
– Use Windows Explorer or the Computer window
– Use a shortcut icon
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 35
 Figure 2-16 Windows Sidebar can be customized with
installed and downloaded gadgets
Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 36

 The Windows Vista Desktop (cont’d.)

• Taskbar
– Bottom of Windows desktop
• Information about open programs, quick access to
others
• Quick launch icons
– Notification (system tray or systray)
– Service: program that runs in the background
– Supports or serves Windows or an application
– Right-click the taskbar, use the shortcut menu
• Control Start menu, taskbar, notification area, open
applications
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 37
 Figure 2-21 The Windows Vista taskbar with a thumbnail of one
open application
Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 38

 Figure 2-22 Press Win+Tab to view open applications in a flip
3D view when using the Vista Aero interface
Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 39

 The Windows Vista Desktop (cont’d.)

• Personalize the Windows desktop

– Right-click anywhere on the desktop
• Choose Personalize from the shortcut menu
• Default programs and file associations
– Located in right column of the Start menu
– Can change default programs associated with certain
file extensions and activities
– File extension
• One or more characters following the last period in a
filename

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 40

Figure 2-25 The Default Programs
window is used to change file
associations
Courtesy: Course
Technology/Cengage Learning
Figure 2-26 Select the default program
to play an .avi video file
Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage
Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 41

 Differences In The Windows XP/2000
Desktop and The Vista Desktop
• Point to All Programs
– List of currently installed software appears
• System tools
– Back up data, clean up a hard drive, schedule tasks,
restore Windows settings, various other things
– New Vista tool
• Internet Explorer (No Add-ons)
• Controlling Windows appearance
– Vista uses Personalization window
– Windows XP/2000 uses the Display Properties
window
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 42
Figure 2-27 The Windows XP
desktop and Start menu
Figure 2-29 Windows XP Display
Courtesy: Course
Properties window lets you change
Technology/Cengage Learning
settings for your desktop
Courtesy: Course
Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 43

 Differences In The Windows XP/2000
Desktop and The Vista Desktop
(cont’d.)
• Vista user account control (UAC) box
– Appears when action requires administrative
privileges
– Two Vista account types
• Administrator account, standard account
– Purposes
• Prevent malicious background tasks from doing harm
• Allow administrator to use less powerful account
– Can be disabled
– Uses color codes
• Red, yellow, green, grey

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 44

 Figure 2-30 The User Account Control box appears each time a user
attempts to perform an action requiring administrative privileges: (a) the
current account has administrative privileges; (b) the current account does
not have administrative privileges
Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 45

 Windows Explorer And The Computer
Window
• Two most useful tools to explore files and folders
• Access Computer or My Computer window
– Windows Vista: click Start and click Computer
– Windows XP: click Start and click My Computer
– Windows 2000: double-click My Computer on the
desktop
• Open Windows Explorer
– Right-click Computer or My Computer and select
Explore from the menu
– Right-click Start and select Explore from the menu

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 46

 Windows Explorer And The Computer
Window (cont’d.)
• Files and directories
• Drives organized with single root directory
– At top of the top-down hierarchical structure of
subdirectories
– Exception: hard drive
• Divided into partitions
• Each volume has its own root directory and hierarchical
structure of subdirectories

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 47

 Figure 2-33 Storage devices such as a USB drive, CD, or hard
drive, are organized into directories and subdirectories that
contain files
Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 48

 Windows Explorer And The Computer
Window (cont’d.)
• Files and directories (cont’d.)
• Path: location of a file referenced by a drive and
directories

Figure 2-34 The complete path to a file includes the volume letter,
directories, filename, and file extension; the colon, backslashes, and
period are required to separate items in the path
Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 49

 Windows Explorer And The Computer
Window (cont’d.)
• Tips to navigate the directory structure
– Double-click to drill down to subfolders inside folders
– Right-click heading bar controls what information
appears
– Use top of the left pane in the Favorite Links area
– Find a folder or file using the Search box (Vista)
– Use forward and back arrows (Vista)
• Default layout for files and folders
– %SystemDrive%\Users folder
– %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings folder
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 50
 Windows Explorer And The Computer
Window (cont’d.)
• Changing folder options
– Controls how users view files in a folder, what users
can do with the files
– File extension
• Used to identify file types (Windows)
• Default: hide file types
• Can view hidden files and file extensions

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 51

 Windows Explorer And The Computer
Window (cont’d.)
• Methods to create a file
– Use a particular application
– Use Windows Explorer or the Computer window

Figure 2-37 Create a new file using Windows Explorer

Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 52
 Windows Explorer And The Computer
Window (cont’d.)
• Create a folder
– Select parent folder
• Right-click in the white area of the right pane
• Select New from the shortcut menu
• Select one of three choices for folder types
• Make a selection
• Folder is created and highlighted so that it may be
renamed
– Can create folders within folders within folders
– Windows desktop is itself a folder

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 53

 Windows Explorer And The Computer
Window (cont’d.)
• Copy or delete files or folders
– Copy
• Right-click file, select Copy from the shortcut menu
• Click in folder white area where the copied item goes
• Select Paste from the shortcut menu
– Alternative way to copy
• Drag and drop item to its new location
– Delete
• Using Explorer, right-click the file or folder, select
Delete from the shortcut menu
– Recycle bin does not really delete files
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 54
 Windows Explorer And The Computer
Window (cont’d.)
• Change file attributes
– Use the Properties window

Figure 2-39 Properties of a file in Windows

Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 55

 The Control Panel

• Contains applets used to manage the system

• Accessing Control Panel in Vista and XP
– Click Start and the click Control Panel
• Two views: Category View and Classic View
• Applets can be accessed directly
– Launched using the Vista Start dialog box (Run dialog
box in Windows 200/XP)
– Example: enter Main.cpl to open Mouse Properties

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 56

 System Information Utility

• Used to view detailed information about the system

• Important features
– Processor or BIOS version installed
– RAM is installed
– OS installation directory
– Hard drive size
– Names of currently running drivers
• Open utility in Vista
– Click Start, and enter Msinfo32.exe in the Start box
and press Enter
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 57
 Command Prompt Window
• Used to enter multiple commands to perform a
variety of tasks
• Ways to open
– Vista Start box or Windows 2000/XP Run box
• Enter cmd.exe and press Enter
– Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, and Command
Prompt
• Clear text: type cls
• Close the window
– Type exit and press Enter or click the X close window
icon in the upper-right corner of the window

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 58

 Command Prompt Window (cont’d.)

• Two levels of command prompt windows

– Standard window and elevated window

Figure 2-44 An elevated command prompt window

Courtesy: Course Technology/Cengage Learning

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 59

 Summary

• OS manages system resources for users and

applications
• Many operating systems have evolved over time
• Operating systems
– Divided into a kernel and user shell
– Provide user interface, manage files, manage
applications, manage hardware
• Tools
– Windows desktop, Windows Explorer, System
Properties, Control Panel, Device Manager, System
Information, Windows Help
A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e 60