operating system

What is an Operating System?

The operating system is the most important program that runs on a computer. Every general-purpose computer must have an operating system to run other programs. Operating systems perform basic tasks, such as recognizing input from the keyboard, sending output to the display screen, keeping track of files and directories on the disk, and controlling peripheral devices such as disk drives and printers. For large systems, the operating system has even greater responsibilities and powers. It is like a traffic cop -- it makes sure that different programs and users running at the same time do not interfere with each other. The operating system is also responsible for security, ensuring that unauthorized users do not access the system.

Operating systems can be classified as follows:

multi-user : Allows two or more users to run programs at the same time. Some operating systems permit hundreds or even thousands of concurrent users. multiprocessing : Supports running a program on more than one CPU. multitasking : Allows more than one program to run concurrently. multithreading : Allows different parts of a single program to run concurrently. real time: Responds to input instantly. General-purpose operating systems, such as DOS and UNIX, are not real-time.

Operating systems provide a software platform on top of which other programs, called application programs, can run. The application programs must be written to run on top of a particular operating system. Your choice of operating system, therefore, determines to a great extent the applications you can run. For PCs, the most popular operating systems are DOS, OS/2, and Windows, but others are available, such as Linux. As a user, you normally interact with the operating system through a set of commands. For example, the DOS operating system contains commands such as COPY and RENAME for copying files and changing the names of files, respectively. The commands are accepted and executed by a part of the operating system called the command processor or command line interpreter. Graphical user interfaces allow you to enter commands by pointing and clicking at objects that appear on the screen.

History
Main article: History of operating systems See also: Resident monitor Early computers were built to perform a series of single tasks, like a calculator. Operating systems did not exist in their modern and more complex forms until the early 1960s.[4] Basic operating system features were developed in the 1950s, such as resident monitor functions that could automatically run different programs in succession to speed up processing. Hardware features were added that enabled use of runtime libraries, interrupts, and parallel processing. When personal computers became popular in the

1980s, operating system were made for them similar in concept to those used on larger computers. In the 1940s, the earliest electronic digital systems had no operating systems. Electronic systems of this time were programmed on rows of mechanical switches or by jumper wires on plug boards. These were special-purpose systems that, for example, generated ballistics tables for the military or controlled the printing of payroll checks from data on punched paper cards. After programmable general purpose computers were invented, machine languages (consisting of strings of the binary digits 0 and 1 on punched paper tape) were introduced that sped up the programming process (Stern, 1981).

OS/360 was used on most IBM mainframe computers beginning in 1966, including the computers that helped NASA put a man on the moon. In the early 1950s, a computer could execute only one program at a time. Each user had sole use of the computer for a limited period of time and would arrive at a scheduled time with program and data on punched paper cards and/or punched tape. The program would be loaded into the machine, and the machine would be set to work until the program completed or crashed. Programs could generally be debugged via a front panel using toggle switches and panel lights. It is said that Alan Turing was a master of this on the early Manchester Mark 1 machine, and he was already deriving the primitive conception of an operating system from the principles of the Universal Turing machine.[4] Later machines came with libraries of programs, which would be linked to a user's program to assist in operations such as input and output and generating computer code from human-readable symbolic code. This was the genesis of the modern-day computer system. However, machines still ran a single job at a time. At Cambridge University in England the job queue was at one time a washing line from which tapes were hung with different colored clothes-pegs to indicate job-priority.[citation needed]

Utility software
Utility software is system software designed to help analyze, configure, optimize or

maintain a computer. A single piece of utility software is usually called a utility or tool. Utility software usually focuses on how the computer infrastructure (including the computer hardware, operating system, application software and data storage) operates. Due to this focus, utilities are often rather technical and targeted at people with an advanced level of computer knowledge - in contrast to application software, which allows users to do things like creating text documents, playing games, listening to music or viewing websites.

Utility software categories

Anti-virus utilities scan for computer viruses. Backup utilities can make a copy of all information stored on a disk, and restore either the entire disk (e.g. in an event of disk failure) or selected files (e.g. in an event of accidental deletion). Data compression utilities output a shorter stream or a smaller file when provided with a stream or file. Disk checkers can scan operating hard drive. Disk cleaners can find files that are unnecessary to computer operation, or take up considerable amounts of space. Disk cleaner helps the user to decide what to delete when their hard disk is full. Disk compression utilities can transparently compress/uncompress the contents of a disk, increasing the capacity of the disk. Disk defragmenters can detect computer files whose contents are broken across several locations on the hard disk, and move the fragments to one location to increase efficiency. Disk partitions can divide an individual drive into multiple logical drives, each with its own file system which can be mounted by the operating system and treated as an individual drive. Disk space analyzers for the visualization of disk space usage by getting the size for each folder (including sub folders) & files in folder or drive. showing the distribution of the used space. Disk storage utilities Archive utilities output a stream or a single file when provided with a directory or a set of files. Archive utilities, unlike archive suites, usually do not include compression or encryption capabilities. Some archive utilities may even have a separate un-archive utility for the reverse operation. File managers provide a convenient method of performing routine data management tasks, such as deleting, renaming, cataloging, uncataloging, moving, copying, merging, generating and modifying data sets.

Cryptographic utilities encrypt and decrypt streams and files. Hex editors directly modify the text or data of a file. These files could be data or an actual program. Memory testers check for memory failures. Network utilities analyze the computer's network connectivity, configure network settings, check data transfer or log events. Registry cleaners clean and optimize the Windows registry by removing old registry keys that are no longer in use. Screensavers were desired to prevent phosphor burn-in on CRT and plasma computer monitors by blanking the screen or filling it with moving images or patterns when the computer is not in use. Contemporary screensavers are used primarily for entertainment or security. System monitors for monitoring resources and performance in a computer system. System profilers provide detailed information about the software installed and hardware attached to the computer.

Antivirus software
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Anti-virus) Jump to: navigation, search "Antivirus" redirects here. For antiviral medication, see Antiviral drug. Antivirus or anti-virus software is software used to prevent, detect and remove malware, such as: computer viruses, adware, backdoors, malicious BHOs, dialers, fraudtools, hijackers, keyloggers, malicious LSPs, rootkits, spyware, trojan horses and worms. Computer security, including protection from social engineering techniques, is commonly offered in products and services of antivirus software companies. This page discusses the software used for the prevention and removal of malware threats, rather than computer security implemented by software methods. A variety of strategies are typically employed. Signature-based detection involves searching for known patterns of data within executable code. However, it is possible for a computer to be infected with new malware for which no signature is yet known. To counter such so-called zero-day threats, heuristics can be used. One type of heuristic approach, generic signatures, can identify new viruses or variants of existing viruses by looking for known malicious code, or slight variations of such code, in files. Some antivirus software can also predict what a file will do by running it in a sandbox and analyzing what it does to see if it performs any malicious actions. No matter how useful antivirus software can be, it can sometimes have drawbacks. Antivirus software can impair a computer's performance. Inexperienced users may also have trouble understanding the prompts and decisions that antivirus software presents

them with. An incorrect decision may lead to a security breach. If the antivirus software employs heuristic detection, success depends on achieving the right balance between false positives and false negatives. False positives can be as destructive as false negatives.[1] Finally, antivirus software generally runs at the highly trusted kernel level of the operating system, creating a potential avenue of attack.[2]

Backup software
Backup software are computer programs used to perform backup; they create supplementary exact copies of files, databases or entire computers. These programs may later use the supplementary copies to restore the original contents in the event of data loss.

Data compression
In computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding,[1] or bit-rate reduction involves encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Compression can be either lossy or lossless. Lossless compression reduces bits by identifying and eliminating statistical redundancy. No information is lost in lossless compression. Lossy compression reduces bits by identifying marginally important information and removing it. The process of reducing the size of a data file is popularly referred to as data compression, although its formal name is source coding (coding done at the source of the data, before it is stored or transmitted). Compression is useful because it helps reduce resources usage, such as data storage space or transmission capacity. Because compressed data must be decompressed to be used, this extra processing imposes computational or other costs through decompression, this situation is far from being a free lunch. Data compression is subject to a space-time complexity trade-off. For instance, a compression scheme for video may require expensive hardware for the video to be decompressed fast enough to be viewed as it is being decompressed, and the option to decompress the video in full before watching it may be inconvenient or require additional storage. The design of data compression schemes involve trade-offs among various factors, including the degree of compression, the amount of distortion introduced (e.g., when using lossy data compression), and the computational resources required to compress and uncompress the data. New alternatives to traditional 'sample-sense-compress' systems (which sample a full resolution then compress), provide efficient resource usage based on principles of compressed sensing. Compressed sensing techniques circumvent the need for datacompression by sampling off a cleverly selected basis.

CHKDSK(disk checkers)
(short for "check disk") is a command on computers running DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows operating systems that displays the file system integrity status of hard disks and floppy disk and can fix logical file system errors. It is similar to the fsck
CHKDSK

command in Unix. The command is implemented as an executable program file, CHKDSK.EXE. Different operating systems all use the same filename, but the files are not necessarily compatible between operating systems. On computers running NT-based versions of Windows, CHKDSK can also check the disk surface for physical errors or bad sectors, a task previously done by SCANDISK. This version of CHKDSK can also handle some physical errors and recover data that is still readable

Disk cleaner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Disk cleaners are computer programs that find and delete potentially unnecessary or potentially unwanted files from a computer. The purpose of such deletion may be to free up disk space, to eliminate clutter or to protect privacy. Disk space consuming unnecessary files include temporary files, trash, old backups and web caches made by web browsers. Privacy risks include HTTP cookies, local shared objects, log files or any other trace that may tell which computer program opened which files. Disk cleaners must not be mistaken with antivirus software (which delete malware), registry cleaners (which clean Windows Registry) or data erasure software (which securely delete files), although multifunction software (such as those included below) may fit into all these categories.

Disk compression
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search A disk compression software utility increases the amount of information that can be stored on a hard disk drive of given size. Unlike a file compression utility which compresses only specified files - and which requires the user designate the files to be compressed - a disk compression utility works automatically and the user doesn't need to be aware of its existence. When information needs to be stored to the hard disk, the utility will compress the information. When information needs to be read, the utility will decompress the information. A disk compression utility overrides the standard operating system routines. Since all software applications access the hard disk using these routines, they continue to work after disk compression has been installed. Disk compression utilities were popular especially in the early 1990s, when microcomputer hard disks were still relatively small (20 to 80 megabytes). Hard drives were also rather expensive at the time, costing roughly 10 USD per megabyte. For the users who bought disk compression applications, the software proved to be in the short

term a more economic means of acquiring more disk space as opposed to replacing their current drive with a larger one. A good disk compression utility could, on average, double the available space with negligible speed loss. Disk compression fell into disuse by the late 1990s, as advances in hard drive technology and manufacturing led to increased capacities and lower prices. Note: While the most familiar disk compression utilities were designed to work on DOS systems, the concept was not specific to DOS. The utility DiskDoubler, for example, worked on the Apple Macintosh platform.

Defragmentation
In the maintenance of file systems, defragmentation is a process that reduces the amount of fragmentation. It does this by physically organizing the contents of the mass storage device used to store files into the smallest number of contiguous regions (fragments). It also attempts to create larger regions of free space using compaction to impede the return of fragmentation. Some defragmentation utilities try to keep smaller files within a single directory together, as they are often accessed in sequence. Defragmentation is advantageous and relevant to file systems on electromechanical disk drives. The movement of the hard drive's read/write heads over different areas of the disk when accessing fragmented files is slower, compared to accessing the entire contents of a non-fragmented file sequentially without moving the read/write heads to seek other fragments.

Disk partitioning
GParted is a popular utility used for disk partitioning Disk partitioning is the act of dividing a hard disk drive into multiple logical storage units referred to as partitions, to treat one physical disk drive as if it were multiple disks. Partitions are also termed "slices" for operating systems based on BSD, Solaris or GNU Hurd. A partition editor software program can be used to create, resize, delete, and manipulate these partitions on the hard disk

Disk space analyzer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search A disk space analyzer (or disk usage analysis software) is a software utility for the visualization of disk space usage by getting the size for each folder (including subfolders) and files in a folder or drive. Most of these applications analyze this information to generate a graphical chart showing disk usage distribution according to folders or other user defined criteria.

[edit] Main features

Features commonly present in this type of software: May scan files, folders, drives size

Presents graphical utilization information chart Lists files/folders according to configurable criteria

[edit] Extra features

Other common features of this category of programs: May export result to a HTML, XML, Excel Can be used to find duplicated files and folders Can calculate file checksums May integrate with system shell May use treemaps Can cleanup files May perform scheduled filesystem scans Can include and exclude certain files and folders in scan May present disk health indicators using S.M.A.R.T.

Disk storage
Disk storage or disc storage is a general category of storage mechanisms, in which data are digitally recorded by various electronic, magnetic, optical, or mechanical methods on a surface layer deposited of one or more planar, round and rotating disks (or discs) (also referred to as the media). A disk drive is a device implementing such a storage mechanism with fixed or removable media; with removable media the device is usually distinguished from the media as in compact disc drive and the compact disc. Notable types are the hard disk drive (HDD) containing a non-removable disk, the floppy disk drive (FDD) and its removable floppy disk, and various optical disc drives and associated optical disc media.

File archiver
A file archiver is a computer program that combines a number of files together into one archive file, or a series of archive files, for easier transportation or storage. Many file archivers employ archive formats that provide lossless data compression to reduce the size of the archive which is often useful for transferring a large number of individual files over a high latency network like the Internet. The most basic archivers just take a list of files and concatenate their contents sequentially into the archive. In addition the archive must also contain some information about at least the names and lengths of the originals, so that proper reconstruction is possible. Most archivers also store metadata about a file that the operating system provides, such as timestamps, ownership and access control. The process of making an archive file is called archiving or packing. Reconstructing the

original files from the archive is termed unarchiving, unpacking or extracting. A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to work with file systems. The most common operations performed on files or groups of files are: create, open, edit, view, print, play, rename, move, copy, delete, search/find, and modify file attributes, properties and file permissions. Files are typically displayed in a hierarchy. Some file managers contain features inspired by web browsers, including forward and back navigational buttons. Some file managers provide network connectivity via protocols, such as FTP, NFS, SMB or WebDAV. This is achieved by allowing the user to browse for a file server (connecting and accessing the server's file system like a local file system) or by providing its own full client implementations for file server protocols.

Filesystem-level encryptionFilesystem-level encryption,

often called file or folder encryption, is a form of disk encryption where individual files or directories are encrypted by the file system itself. This is in contrast to full disk encryption where the entire partition or disk, in which the file system resides, is encrypted. The advantages of filesystem-level encryption include: flexible file-based key management, so that each file can be and usually is encrypted with a separate encryption key individual management of encrypted files e.g. incremental backups of the individual changed files even in encrypted form, rather than backup of the entire encrypted volume[clarification needed] access control can be enforced through the use of public-key cryptography, and the fact that cryptographic keys are only held in memory while the file that is decrypted by them is held open.

[edit] General-purpose file systems with encryption

Unlike cryptographic file systems or full disk encryption, general-purpose file systems that include filesystem-level encryption do not typically encrypt file system metadata, such as the directory structure, file names, sizes or modification timestamps. This can be problematic if the metadata itself needs to be kept confidential. In other words, if files are stored with identifying file names, anyone who has access to the physical disk can know which documents are stored on the disk, although not the contents of the documents. One exception to this is the encryption support being added to the ZFS filesystem. Filesystem metadata such as filenames, ownership, ACLs, extended attributes are all stored encrypted on disk. The ZFS metadata about the storage pool is still stored in the clear so it is possible to determine how many filesystems (datasets) are available in the pool and even which ones are encrypted but not what the content of the stored files or directories are.

[edit] Cryptographic file systems

Cryptographic file systems are specialized (not general-purpose) file systems that are specifically designed with encryption and security in mind. They usually encrypt all the data they contain including metadata. Instead of implementing an on-disk format and their own block allocation, these file systems are often layered on top of existing file systems e.g. residing in a directory on a host file system. Many such file systems also offer advanced features, such as deniable encryption, cryptographically secure read-only file system permissions and different views of the directory structure depending on the key or user. Network utilities are software utilities designed to analyze and configure various aspects of computer networks. The majority of them originated on Unix systems, but several later ports to other operating systems exist. The most common tools (found on most operating systems) include:
ping,

ping a host to check connectivity (reports packet loss and latency, uses ICMP). shows the series of successive systems a packet goes through en route to its destination on a network. It works by sending packets with sequential TTLs which generate ICMP TTL-exceeded messages from the hosts the packet passes through.
traceroute nslookup,

used to query a DNS server for DNS data (deprecated on Unix systems in favour of the tool called host and dig; still the preferred tool on Microsoft Windows systems).
spray,

Other network utilities include: which sprays numerous packets in the direction of a host and reports results Some usages of network configuration tools also serve to display and diagnose networks, for example:
iproute2 ifconfig ipconfig route

(on Linux) (on Unix) (on Windows)

can display an IP routing table

System profiler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the generic program. For Mac OS's system profiler, see System Information. A system profiler is a program that can provide detailed information about the software

installed and hardware attached to a computer. Typically workstations and personal computers have had system profilers as a common feature since the mid-1990s. However, system profilers exist on most computing architectures in some form or other. System Monitor programs in mainframes essentially provide the same function as system profiler programs on personal computers. Modern system profilers typically provide real time information on not only CPU state (such as clock speed), GPU state, and attached hardware state (such as USB or Firewire devices).

Computing Dictionary

utility software definition

tool (Or utility program, tool) Any software that performs some specific task that is secondary to the main purpose of using the computer (the latter would be called application programs) but is not essential to the operation of the computer ( system software). Many utilities could be considered as part of the system software, which can in turn be considered part of the operating system. The following are some broad categories of utility software, specific types and examples. * Disks disk formatter: FDISK, format defragmenter disk checker: fsck disk cleaner system profiler backup file system compression * Files and directories list directory: ls, dir copy, move, remove: cp, mv, rm, xcopy archive: tar compression: zip format conversion: atob comparison: diff sort: sort * Security authentication: login antivirus software: avast, Norton Antivirus firewall: Zone Alarm, Windows firewall encryption: gpg) * Editors for general-purpose formats (as opposed to specific formats like a word

processing document) text editor: Emacs binary editor, hex editor * Communications mail transfer agent: sendmail e-mail notification: biff file transfer: ftp, rcp, Firefox file synchronisation: unison, briefcase chat: Gaim, cu directory services: bind, nslookup, whois network diagnosis: ping, traceroute remote access: rlogin, ssh * Software development compiler: gcc build: make, ant codewalker preprocessor: cpp debugger: adb, gdb installation: apt-get, msiexec, patch compiler compiler: yacc * Hardware device configuration: PCU, devman, stty (2007-02-02)