Functions of operating system

By • Senior Technology Editor What is an operating system? An operating system (OS) is the program that, after being initially loaded into the computer by a boot program, manages all of the other application programs in a computer. The application programs make use of the operating system by making requests for services through a defined application program interface ( Why use an operating system? An operating system brings powerful benefits to computer software and software development. Without an operating system, every application would need to include its own UI, as well as the comprehensive code needed to handle all low-level functionality of the underlying computer, such as disk storage, network interfaces and so on. Considering the vast array of underlying hardware available, this would vastly bloat the size of every application and make software development impractical. Instead, many common tasks, such as sending a network packet or displaying text on a standard output device, such as a display, can be offloaded to system software that serves as an intermediary between the applications and the hardware. The system software provides a consistent and repeatable way for applications to interact with the hardware without the applications needing to know any details about the hardware. As long as each application accesses the same resources and services in the same way, that system software -- the operating system -- can service almost any number of applications. This v...

An Introduction to Operating System An Operating system forms the core of any computer device. The functioning and processing of a computer system can come to hold without an operating system. In this article, we shall discuss in detail the Operating System, along with its various types and functions. The different features and history of the development of OS have also been discussed. For the reference of competitive exam aspirants, some sample questions have also been given further below in this article. To comprehend Computer Knowledge and its key features, understanding this concept becomes a key factor. Thus, one must carefully go through the various aspects related to this topic to understand it well. Table of Contents: • • • • • Before moving forward, let us first know What is an Operating System? An Operating System is the interface between the computer hardware and the end-user. Processing of data, running applications, file management and handling the memory is all managed by the computer OS. Windows, Mac, Android etc. Are examples of Operating systems which are generally used nowadays. All modern computing devices including Laptops, Tablet, mobile phones, etc. comprise an Operating System which helps in the smooth working of the device. To strengthen your command over Computer Awareness, refer to the links below and learn more about the various terms, programs and applications: • • • • • • History of the Operating System It took years to evolve the Operating Sy...

More • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Functions of Operating System An operating system is a piece of software that manages files, manages memory, manages processes, handles input and output, and controls peripheral devices like disk drives and printers, among other things. In this article, we will dive deeper into the functions of operating systems according to the Table of Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • What is an Operating System? An operating system is a software package that runs applications and serves as a communication link (interface) between the computer hardware and the user. The allocation of services and resources, like devices, memory, processors, and information, is the primary duty of an operating system. A traffic controller, a scheduler, a memory management module, a file system, and...

In this article This article for the IT professional describes how to use tools to manage BitLocker. BitLocker Drive Encryption Tools include the command-line tools manage-bde and repair-bde and the BitLocker cmdlets for Windows PowerShell. Both manage-bde and the BitLocker cmdlets can be used to perform any task that can be accomplished through the BitLocker control panel and are appropriate to use for automated deployments and other scripting scenarios. Repair-bde is a special circumstance tool that is provided for disaster recovery scenarios in which a BitLocker protected drive can't be unlocked normally or using the recovery console. • • • Manage-bde Manage-bde is a command-line tool that can be used for scripting BitLocker operations. Manage-bde offers additional options not displayed in the BitLocker control panel. For a complete list of the manage-bde.exe options, see the Manage-bde includes fewer default settings and requires greater customization for configuring BitLocker. For example, using just the manage-bde.exe -on command on a data volume will fully encrypt the volume without any authenticating protectors. A volume encrypted in this manner still requires user interaction to turn on BitLocker protection, even though the command successfully completed because an authentication method needs to be added to the volume for it to be fully protected. The following sections provide examples of common usage scenarios for manage-bde. Using manage-bde with operating syst...

Operating Systems Operating Systems When a brand new computer comes off the factory assembly line, it can do nothing. The hardware needs software to make it work. Are we talking about applications software such as word processing or spreadsheet software? Partly. Figure 1: The Operating System in a Hierarchy But an applications software package does not communicate directly with the hardware. As shown in Figure 1, between the applications software and the hardware is a software interface - an operating system. An operating system is a set of programs that lies between applications software and the computer hardware. Conceptually the operating system software is an intermediary between the hardware and the applications software. Incidentally, the term system software is sometimes used interchangeably with operating system, but system software means all programs related to coordinating computer operations. System software does include the operating system, but it also includes the BIOS software (see Figure 2: System Software Note that we said that an operating system is a set of programs. The most important program in the operating system, the program that manages the operating system, is the supervisor program, most of which remains in memory and is thus referred to as resident. The supervisor controls the entire operating system and loads into memory other operating system programs (called nonresident) from disk storage only as needed. An operating system has three main fun...

• Blog • Communication • Journalism • Mass communication • Management • Finance • Financial Management • Marketing • International Marketing • HRM • Soft Skills • Business Environment • Consumer Behaviour • Economics • Categories • Journalism • Anthropology • Computer Science • Online Courses • Toggle website search Processes may be executed sequentially or concurrently depending on the type of operating system. Processes may be executed sequentially or concurrently depending on the type of operating system. Threads are an important concept of process management in operating systems. A thread is a basic unit of CPU utilization, and a flow of control within a process, supported by a thread control block (TCB) with a thread ID, a set of registers, a program counter, and a stack. Conventional operating systems are single-thread systems. Multithreaded systems enable the process to control a number of execution threads. The benefits of multithreaded operating systems and multithreaded programming are responsiveness, resource sharing, implementation efficiency, and utilization of multiprocessor architectures of modern computers. Priority Scheduling (PR) This algorithm assigns different priorities to individual processes. Based on this, CPU scheduling will be carried out by selecting the process with the highest priority. The drawback of the priority algorithm is starvation, a term that denotes the indefinite blocking of low priority processes under high CPU load. To deal with st...

Operating Systems Operating Systems When a brand new computer comes off the factory assembly line, it can do nothing. The hardware needs software to make it work. Are we talking about applications software such as word processing or spreadsheet software? Partly. Figure 1: The Operating System in a Hierarchy But an applications software package does not communicate directly with the hardware. As shown in Figure 1, between the applications software and the hardware is a software interface - an operating system. An operating system is a set of programs that lies between applications software and the computer hardware. Conceptually the operating system software is an intermediary between the hardware and the applications software. Incidentally, the term system software is sometimes used interchangeably with operating system, but system software means all programs related to coordinating computer operations. System software does include the operating system, but it also includes the BIOS software (see Figure 2: System Software Note that we said that an operating system is a set of programs. The most important program in the operating system, the program that manages the operating system, is the supervisor program, most of which remains in memory and is thus referred to as resident. The supervisor controls the entire operating system and loads into memory other operating system programs (called nonresident) from disk storage only as needed. An operating system has three main fun...

More • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • An Introduction to Operating System An Operating system forms the core of any computer device. The functioning and processing of a computer system can come to hold without an operating system. In this article, we shall discuss in detail the Operating System, along with its various types and functions. The different features and history of the development of OS have also been discussed. For the reference of competitive exam aspirants, some sample questions have also been given further below in this article. To comprehend Computer Knowledge and its key features, understanding this concept becomes a key factor. Thus, one must carefully go through the various aspects related to this topic to understand it well. Table of Contents: • • • • • Before moving forward, let us...

In this article This article for the IT professional describes how to use tools to manage BitLocker. BitLocker Drive Encryption Tools include the command-line tools manage-bde and repair-bde and the BitLocker cmdlets for Windows PowerShell. Both manage-bde and the BitLocker cmdlets can be used to perform any task that can be accomplished through the BitLocker control panel and are appropriate to use for automated deployments and other scripting scenarios. Repair-bde is a special circumstance tool that is provided for disaster recovery scenarios in which a BitLocker protected drive can't be unlocked normally or using the recovery console. • • • Manage-bde Manage-bde is a command-line tool that can be used for scripting BitLocker operations. Manage-bde offers additional options not displayed in the BitLocker control panel. For a complete list of the manage-bde.exe options, see the Manage-bde includes fewer default settings and requires greater customization for configuring BitLocker. For example, using just the manage-bde.exe -on command on a data volume will fully encrypt the volume without any authenticating protectors. A volume encrypted in this manner still requires user interaction to turn on BitLocker protection, even though the command successfully completed because an authentication method needs to be added to the volume for it to be fully protected. The following sections provide examples of common usage scenarios for manage-bde. Using manage-bde with operating syst...

By • Senior Technology Editor What is an operating system? An operating system (OS) is the program that, after being initially loaded into the computer by a boot program, manages all of the other application programs in a computer. The application programs make use of the operating system by making requests for services through a defined application program interface ( Why use an operating system? An operating system brings powerful benefits to computer software and software development. Without an operating system, every application would need to include its own UI, as well as the comprehensive code needed to handle all low-level functionality of the underlying computer, such as disk storage, network interfaces and so on. Considering the vast array of underlying hardware available, this would vastly bloat the size of every application and make software development impractical. Instead, many common tasks, such as sending a network packet or displaying text on a standard output device, such as a display, can be offloaded to system software that serves as an intermediary between the applications and the hardware. The system software provides a consistent and repeatable way for applications to interact with the hardware without the applications needing to know any details about the hardware. As long as each application accesses the same resources and services in the same way, that system software -- the operating system -- can service almost any number of applications. This v...