1.5 - System Software Flashcards
What is the purpose of the operating system?
- To manage and run the computer’s hardware
- To act as a platform for other software to be installed upon and run
- To provide an interface between the user and the hardware
What do operating systems manage?
- Memory management and multitasking
- Peripheral management and drivers
- User management
- File management
- User interface
What is memory management?
Loading programs from the hard drive into RAM
What is a peripheral?
An external device connected to a computer system
What is a device driver?
A program that provides interface for the OS to communicate with a peripheral
What is user management?
Creating, managing, deleting and granting different access rights to individual accounts
What is file management?
Allowing files to be named, renamed, opened, copied, moved, saved, searched for, sorted and deleted
What is a user interface?
Allowing a human to interact with the computer system
What are the features of a Graphical User Interface (GUI)?
- WIMP (Windows, icons, menus, pointers)
- Optimised for mouse and touch gesture input
What are the features of a Command Line Interface (CLI)?
- Text based
- Takes up less storage space compared to a GUI
- For experts as it is complicated
What are the features of a Menu-Driven Interface?
- Successive menus presented to the user
- Often with buttons on a keypad
- User friendly and easy to use
What are the features of a Voice-Driven Interface?
- Responds to questions in spoken language
- Not always reliable
- Commands may be misheard or limited in what can be performed
- Hands-free to speed up processes
What is utility software?
Dedicated programs for the maintenance and organisation of a computer system
What are examples of utility software?
- Anti-malware, firewall and encryption (1.4)
- Compression (1.2)
- Defragmentation
- Backup software, disk checkers, disk formatters and auto-updaters
What is fragmentation?
Files on a hard disk drive split into parts saved in different storage location
