Information and Communication Technology

3.1.2 Operating System

4.1.1 Operating System

The software that manages the resources of a computer system and schedules its operation is called the operating system . The operating system acts as an interface between the hardware and the user programmes and facilitates the execution of the programmes. The principal functions of operating system include:

· To control and coordinate peripheral devices such as printers, dis play screen and disk drives.

· To monitor the use of the machine's resources.

· To manage disk files where data and programmes are stored.

· To help the application programmes execute its instructions.

· To help the user develop programmes.

· To deal with any faults that may occur in the computer and inform the operator.

The operating system is usually available with hardware manufacturers and is rarely developed in-house owing to its technical complexity. Small computers are built from a wide variety of mic roprocessor chips and use different operating systems. Hence, an operating system that runs on one computer may not run on the other. Popular operating systems include, among others, MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and UNIX.