1. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e Chapter 2 Introducing Operating Systems

2. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e2 Chapter Concepts Various operating systems –Historical –Current Components of Windows operating systems How operating systems interface with –Users –Files and folders –Applications –Hardware

3. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e3 Operating Systems Past And Present Operating system (OS): software that 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

4. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e4 Windows Operating Systems

5. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e5 Figure 2-1 Users and applications depend on the OS to relate to all applications and hardware components

6. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e6 DOS (Disk Operating System) First OS used by IBM computers/compatibles, about 1984 Command line driven set of programs 16-bit processing Outdated as desktop computer operating system –Still available on troubleshooting disks or CDs –Commands invaluable when GUI not working

7. DOS Shell – semi-graphical interface; 1988 A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e7

8. 8 Windows 3.X Refers to Windows 3.1 and Windows 3.11 DOS is the actual operating system Provides user-friendly intermediate program between: –DOS, applications, and the user Features: –Graphical user interface (GUI) –Windows desktop –Windows concept –Ability to keep more than one application open at the same time

9. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e9 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

10. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e10 Windows 9x/ME Refers to Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me True operating system, but used some elements of DOS core Used combination of 16-bit and 32-bit processing No longer supported by Microsoft, but still on some computers Information about Windows 9x/Me on CD with text

11. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e11 Windows NT Two versions of Windows NT (New Technology): –Windows NT Workstation for desktops – high-end users –Windows NT Server to control a network Microsoft completely rewrote OS core –Totally eliminates DOS core –Introduced many new problems First Windows OS to do all processing 32 bits at a time

12. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e12 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 No longer supported by Microsoft; still in existance

13. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e13 Windows XP Released in 2001; XP is for “eXPerience” 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 – three service packs –Service pack: major update or fix to an OS –Patch: minor fix As of Dec 2009 had 61.6% market share; peaked at 76.1% in January 2007

14. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e14 Windows Vista Upgrade from Windows XP, comes in five versions Home Basic Home Premium Business Enterprise Ultimate 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 –Large amount of computer resources required –Slow performance

15. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e15 Windows 7 Next generation of Microsoft OS Should correct Vista complaints Expected to run on netbooks as well as PCs –Low-end inexpensive laptop with small 9- or 10-inch screen, no optical drive –Generally used for Web browsing, e-mail, word processing

16. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e16 MAC OS Introduced in 1984 with Macintosh computers –Current version: Mac OS X (ten) Several releases; current release is Leopard –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

17. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e17 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

18. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e18 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

19. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e19 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

20. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e20 What an Operating System Does Four functions common to all operating systems –Providing a user interface Pass commands into the system Get results out of the system –Managing files Creating, storing, retrieving, deleting, moving –Managing applications Installing, un-installing, running, managing application/hardware interface –Managing hardware Permanent programs (BIOS); memory and other devices

21. 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, 7e21

22. 22 Figure 2-10 Inside an operating system, different components perform various functions

23. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e23 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

24. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e24 Components of Windows (cont’d.) Configuration data –Used when OS first loaded and when needed by hardware, applications, users –Stored in: Registry Initialization files (.ini,.inf)

25. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e25 How Windows Manages Applications Launching an application –Move instructions from hard drive into memory Process: a running program, together with the system resources assigned to it –Also called Instance Request for resources (memory for data; other programs) made through Win32 subsystem –Request is called a thread –Thread: Single task Multithreading: multiple threads

26. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e26 Figure 2-11 A process with two threads Thread

27. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e27 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 basic device communication; during OS load, drivers are loaded Drivers written to work for a specific OS Four types of software –Operating system, applications, device drivers, BIOS

28. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e28 Figure 2-12 An OS relates to hardware by way of device drivers and possibly system BIOS

29. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e29 How Many Bits At A Time? Central Processing Unit (CPU) –Also called a processor –Partly determines which operating system can be installed Major consideration: processor and OS bit- processing must match –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 (and REALLY old ones handled 24, 16, 12, 8, or 4 bits)

30. What Does “x-bit” Processing Mean? Confusingly, it can mean many things –The size of registers –The size of the data bus –The size of instructions that can be processed –Several other things More bits is not absolutely better –Although speed is increased, more bits are more complex and require more resources Sometimes, the sizes of these things are mixed within a processor Regardless, a particular processor is called by a specific x-bit term A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e30

31. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e31 Bit-processing: Processors 32-bit processors often called 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

32. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e32 Bit-processing: Operating Systems 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

33. How Many Bits At A Time? (cont’d.) 64-bit versus 32-bit processing –64-bit processing is faster than 32-bit, but requires more resources –64-bit OS requires that device drivers operating in kernel mode be 64-bit drivers –Applications can be compiled for 64-bit or 32-bit –32-bit OS can only address up to 4 GB of memory –Benefit from 64-bit computing if: Often need many applications open at the same time High computing needs Enough hard drive space and memory A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e33

34. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e34 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 Terminology tips –x86 refers to 32-bit processors 32-bit operating systems –x86-64 refers to 32-bit processors that process 64-bit instructions 64-bit operating systems –IA64 refers to 64-bit Intel processors –x64 refers to 64-bit operating systems

35. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e35 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 –Basic Windows utilities (covered in this chapter; others later) My Computer and Windows Explorer Control Panel System Information Command Prompt window

36. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e36 The Windows XP/Vista Desktop Desktop is primary tool provided by Windows shell Start menu –Username shown at top –Applications at the top left “pinned” to the menu –Applications used often Listed below the pinned applications (can change) –User-oriented applications In the column on the left side –User files and OS utilities In the column on the right side

37. 37 The Windows XP desktop and Start menu

38. 38 Figure 2-15 The Vista desktop and Start menu

39. The Windows Desktop (cont’d.) Sidebar and gadgets new in Vista –Sidebar Properties box used to customize: Start the sidebar each time Windows starts Decide where sidebar appears Remove gadgets in sidebar Four ways to launch an application (there are others) –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, 7e39

40. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e40 Windows Sidebar can be customized with installed and downloaded gadgets

41. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e41 The Windows Desktop (cont’d.) Taskbar: bottom of Windows desktop (can be moved) –Information about open programs, quick access to others Quick launch icons Notification Area (system tray or systray) Icons for running applications –In XP, hovering over application icon displays tooltip with name –In Vista, hovering over application icon displays thumbnail Service: program that runs in the background –Supports or serves Windows or an application To customize taskbar: right-click taskbar, use shortcut menu –Controls Start menu, taskbar, notification area

42. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e42 The Windows Vista taskbar with a thumbnail of one open application

43. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e43 Figure 2-22 Press Win+Tab to cycle through open applications in a flip 3D view when using the Vista Aero interface; press Alt+Tab to cycle in XP

44. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e44 The Windows Desktop (cont’d.) Personalize the Windows desktop –Right-click anywhere on the desktop Vista: choose Personalize from the shortcut menu XP: choose Properties from the shortcut menu Vista: 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 XP file associations covered later

45. 45 The Default Programs window is used to change file associations Example: Select the default program to play an.avi video file

46. Comparison of XP/2000 Desktop and Vista Desktop Both: All Programs –List of currently installed software appears Both: Start, All Programs, Accessories, 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, 7e46

47. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e47 Vista User Account Control (UAC) Box Appears when action requires administrative privileges, even if user logged on as administrator –Two Vista account types: Administrator and Standard Purposes of UAC –Prevent task started by malicious code –Allow administrator to use less powerful account in general, but still perform admin actions UAC can be disabled – not recommended Uses color codes –Red (danger) –Yellow (unknown) –Green (trusted Windows component) –Grey (trusted other component)

48. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e48 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

49. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e49 Computer Window (Windows Explorer) Vista uses term Computer; XP uses My Computer In past, Windows Explorer and My Computer were somewhat different; now they are the same –Most useful tools to explore files and folders To access Computer or My Computer window –Win+E –Windows Vista: click Start and click Computer –Windows XP: click Start and click My Computer –Windows 2000: double-click My Computer on the desktop

50. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e50 Computer Window (cont’d.) Files and directories –The terms Directories and Folders are the same –Sub-directory (sub-folder) is a directory within a directory Drives organized with single root directory –At top of the top-down hierarchical structure of subdirectories –Exception: hard drive Might be divided into partitions, each called a Volume –Term Volume often used for all drives Each volume has its own root directory and hierarchical structure of subdirectories

51. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e51 Computer Window (cont’d.) Drives and volumes identified with a letter –A and B are floppy drives, for historical reasons –C is hard drive; if multiple volumes, D, E, F, … assigned –D is often optical drive (CD/DVD); if D has been used, next free letter is assigned –Additional letters assigned to removable media (USB, etc) and/or network drives

52. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e52 Figure 2-33 Storage devices such as a USB drive, CD, or hard drive, are organized into directories and subdirectories that contain files

53. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e53 Computer Window (cont’d.) Path: location of a file referenced by a drive and directories The complete path to a file includes the volume letter, all directories in order, filename, and file extension. The colon, backslashes, and period are required to separate items in the path

54. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e54 Computer Window (cont’d.) Tips to navigate the directory structure –Click the Folders icon to toggle the left pane that shows folders –To “open” a folder and drill down to subfolders inside folders In left pane, double-click the folder, or If right pane is showing, click + signs in XP or arrowheads in Vista beside the folder name –Right-click the heading bar to specify what information appears –Find a folder or file using Search –Use forward and back arrows to move through previous views

55. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e55 Computer Window (cont’d.) Default locations for user files and folders –Vista: a folder with the account name placed in the %SystemDrive%\Users folder For example C:\Users\CFox –XP: a folder with the account name placed in the %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings folder For example C:\Documents and Settings\Cfox

56. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e56 Computer Window: Folder Options Controls how users view files in a folder, what users can do with the files From the Menu click Tools, Folder Options –General tab has some general preferences –View tab has many additional preferences To make extensions visible, unclick Hide Extensions for Known File Types To display hidden files, click Show Hidden Files and Folders To display the operating system files, unclick Hide Protected Operating System Files

57. Computer Window: File Associations Windows can associate a file extension with an application program; when a file with that extension is double-clicked, the application will be loaded and the file opened within it –Many programs set up this association when they are loaded, such as.docx for Word –You can set (or change) these associations Vista: previously discussed as Default Programs XP: from My Computer menu, click Tools, Folder Options. Click File Types tab. Click an extension from the list, or click New to add one. Click Change to see a list of installed applications. Select the desired application. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e57

58. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e58 Computer Window: Creating a Folder Select parent folder –Right-click in the white area of the right pane –Select New from the shortcut menu –Select one of the choices for folder types XP choices: Folder and Shortcut Vista choices: Folder, Shortcut, Compressed (Zipped) –Folder is created and highlighted so that it may be renamed To rename an existing file or folder, select it, then press F2 (or right-click and choose Rename) Can create folders within folders within folders The desktop is itself a folder, and can have sub-folders

59. Computer Window: File/Folder Manipulation Move, Copy or Delete files or folders –Move Drag and drop item to its new location (if moved to a different drive, original stays in place; otherwise not) –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 Hold down Ctrl key, drag and drop item to 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, 7e59

60. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e60 Computer Window: Changing File Attributes Right-click the file/folder name; select Properties

61. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e61 The Control Panel Contains applets (small programs) 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

62. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e62 System Information Utility Used to view detailed information about the system –Processor or BIOS version installed –Installed RAM –OS installation directory –Hard drive size –Names of currently running drivers To open utility –Vista: Click Start, type Msinfo32.exe in the Start box and press Enter –XP: Click Start, Click Run…, type Msinfo32.exe in the Run box and press Enter

63. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e63 Command Prompt Window Sometimes called DOS Prompt Used to enter 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 To clear text: type cls To close the window –Type exit and press Enter or click the X close window icon in the upper-right corner of the window

64. A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, 7e64 Command Prompt Window (cont’d.) Two levels: standard window and elevated window (for administrators)