Introduction of different operating systems such as windows, Unix/ Linux, Creating, Files & Folders, File Management.

 

Windows Operating System

 

The operating system window is the extension of the disk operating system. It is the most popular and simplest operating system; it can be used by any person who can read and understand basic English, as it does not require any special training.

However, the Windows Operating System requires DOS to run the various application programs initially. Because of this reason, DOS should be installed into the memory and then window can be executed.

Elements of Windows OS

Following are the significant element of Windows Operating System (WOS) −

 

·         Graphical User Interface

·         Icons (pictures, documents, application, program icons, etc.)

·         Taskbar

·         Start button

·         Windows explorer

·         Mouse button

·         Hardware compatibility

·         Software compatibility

·         Help, etc.

Once you are logged in a window computer system, you will get dozens of applications, so you can choose an option of your requirement.

Many of the options have shortcut icon readily available on your computer screen; however, in some computers, you may not find any such option on the screen; in such a case, you can take the help of menu button (as shown in the image given below) −

 

 

Start Menu Options

The following table lists down the options that appear after clicking on the Start menu −

 

 

Option & Description

 

1.   All programs

 

It displays all those programs, which are installed in your system.

 

2.   Document

 

It displays a list of folders used by the user.

3.   Recent file

It displays the recently used file.

4.   My picture

It displays a list of pictures.

5.   My music

It displays a list of music/song, etc.

6.   My computer

It displays the drives of computer where user keeps his/her work, file, folder, song, video, picture, e-book, etc.

7.   Control panel

It displays all the installed computer programs (software).

8.   Printer

It displays the installed printers (if printer is installed in the system, user can take print easily).

9.   Help (support)

It helps users to know how to do a particular task.

10.   Search

It helps a user to find a file in computer.

11.   Run

It helps to start an application program or execute a DOS command.

12.   Setting

It has different options that help to manage different settings of the computer, software as well as hardware.

13.   Log Off

It helps a user to log off the currently logged in user of the system.

14.   Sleep

It makes the system non-functional; however, puts the ongoing work and settings in memory and also keeps drawing small amount of power.

15.   Hibernation

Hibernation puts the open documents and programs on hard disk and then turns off your computer; in comparison to ‗sleep‘, it uses very low power.

16.   Restart

Its function is to shut down and again start (log on) computer; it is done normally to refresh computer especially when computer is hanged.

17.   Shut down

It simply shuts down the system.

 

Recycle Bin

Recycle Bin is a trash location where deleted files remain stored. Once you delete any sort of file, it gets stored (automatically) into recycle bin; therefore, if you mistakenly deleted some important file, don‘t panic, go to recycle bin and restore it. However, if you deleted file from recycle bin as well, then it is very difficult to restore that permanently deleted file.

 

Accessories

Windows operating system ships with some handy applications known as Windows accessories. Calculator, Notepad, Paint, Explorer, WordPad are some of the most frequently used accessories.

 

Calculator

Windows Calculator is a calculating application included in all the versions of Windows. It can be used to perform simple calculation, scientific calculation and Programming calculation.

 

·         Choose Start >> Programs >> Accessories >> Calculator to start Calculator application, or

·         Alternately you can open Run dialog box (Start >> Run) dialog box then type calc and hit enter.

·         From View menu choose the required type of calculator – Standard, Scientific, Programmer, Statistical

·         Edit >> Copy and Paste commands can be used to input the numbers into calculator or paste the result to other applications

 

Calculator was first included with Windows 1.0 as a simple arithmetic calculator. In Windows 3.0, a Scientific mode was added, which included exponents and roots, logarithms, factorial- based functions, trigonometry (supports radian, degree and gradians angles), base conversions (2, 8, 10, 16), logic operations, Statistic functions such as single variable statistics and linear regression.

 

Paint

Paint (formerly Paintbrush for Windows) is a simple graphics painting program that has been included with all versions of Microsoft Windows. It is often referred to as MS Paint or Microsoft Paint. The program opens and saves files as Windows bitmap (24-bit, 256 color, 16 color, and monochrome) .BMP, JPEG, GIF. Paintbrush supports GIF without animation or transparency. Since Windows 98 Paint supports GIF with transparency. It also supports PNG (without alpha channel), and TIFF (without multiple page support).

 

The program can be in color mode or two-color black-and-white, but there is no grayscale mode. For its simplicity, it rapidly became one of the most used applications in

the early versions of Windows—introducing many to painting on a computer for the first time—and still has strong associations with the immediate usability of the old Windows workspace.

 

Notepad

 

Notepad is a common text-only (plain text) editor. The resulting files—typically saved with the

.txt extension—have no format tags or styles, making the program suitable for editing system files that are to be used in a DOS environment.

 

Notepad supports both left-to-right and right-to-left based languages, and one can alternate between these viewing formats by using the right or left Ctrl+Shift keys to go to right-to-left format or left-to-right format, respectively.

 

WordPad

Microsoft WordPad is a free rich text editor included with Microsoft Windows 95 and the later. Earlier to Windows 95 there used to be an application called Write for the same task. Although capable of doing much more than Notepad, WordPad is not as advanced as Microsoft Word.

 

WordPad can format and print text, but lacks intermediate features such as a spell checker, thesaurus, and support for tables. As such, it is suitable for writing letters or short pieces, but underpowered for work that relies heavily on graphics or typesetting.

 

Control Panel

The Control Panel is a section of Microsoft Windows that enables a user to change various computer hardware and software features. Settings for the mouse, display, sound, network, and keyboard represent just a few examples of what may be modified in the Control Panel. Below the Control Panel appeared in Windows.