The operating system (OS) is an integrated set of programs that control the computer’s overall operations and resources. From a user’s point viewpoint the OS is invisible — however, it provides applications with the services they need to make computer software and hardware more user-friendly.
Access to the data stored on disks is an essential operating system function, and requires the OS to be able to provide a method to organize the contents of each file, thereby improving speed, reliability and storage efficiency. This structure, also known as a file-system, permits files to be given attributes and names. They can also be arranged into directories or folders to create the directory tree.
The majority of computers come with a variety of types of hardware devices such as keyboards, mice, and printers, which rely on drivers for the device to communicate with the system. The operating system installs and configures these drivers to provide the appropriate service to the applications. It also hides myopendatablog.com the hardware configuration to users, so that they can interact with the system without knowing about the exact configuration of the hardware.
Process Management
OSs monitor all applications running on a computer and decide how much time each application is allowed to use in a multitasking environment. It also manages interruptions applications cause to get a processor’s attention and ensures there is enough memory to allow an application to complete its work without interfering with other processes.
Operating systems also perform other tasks which are related to the general functioning of the computer including keeping the primary memory full of huge byte arrays or word files which each have an address. The OS keeps track of how much of these bytes are being used by various applications and can delete, move or arrange them to free up space.