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Computer Software
 Software is a set of instructions that drive a
computer to perform specific tasks.
 These instructions tell the machine’s physical
components what to do.
 A set of instructions is often called a program.
 When a computer is using a particular program, it
is………………………………………?
Computer Software  said to be running or executing the program.
Lecture 3  The two most common types of programs are
By system software and application software.
FRED B

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Computer Software Types of software

Computer
 System software: helps the computer to carry out software
its basic operating tasks.
Application System
 Application software: helps the user carry out a software software
variety of tasks.
 A Computer hardware is useless without software. General Application System System
Purpose Specific Management Development
Programs Programs Programs Programs

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System Software Device Drivers

 System Software: computer software designed to
operate the computer hardware, to provide basic  A device driver is a computer program which allows higher-level
functionality, and to provide a platform for running computer programs to interact with a hardware device.
application software.  Drivers are hardware-dependent and operating-system-specific.
 It functionality is to bridge computer system hardware  They usually provide the interrupt handling required for any necessary
and application software. asynchronous time-dependent hardware interface.
 Examples  A device driver simplifies programming by acting as an abstraction
 Device drivers layer between a hardware device and the operating systems that use it.
 Utility programs  Drivers are usually written by the companies that develop the hardware
 Operating systems or by others for free operating systems like Linux.
 Compiler
 Firmware
 Networking software 1
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Brief History of Operating

Operating System (OS) systems(OS’S)
 It is a software that
controls the system’s THE DOS:
hardware and interacts  IBM Introduced DOS (Disk Operating System) in 1981.
with the user and Later many versions like MS-DOS (1982) by Microsoft were
application software. introduced.
 Text based OS
 All DOS-type operating systems run on machines with the
 The operating system acts
Intel x86 or compatible CPUs, mainly the IBM PC and
as an intermediary between compatibles.
application programs and  DOS is a single-user, single-task operating system with
the computer hardware. basic kernel functions that are non-reentrant: only one
program at a time can use them.

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Brief History cont’ Brief History cont’

DOS Windows Operating System
 Microsoft Windows has a significant majority of market share in
 DOS consists of two parts, the kernel and the the desktop and notebook computer markets
command.com which is the command interface.
 Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named
 The DOS kernel provides various functions for programs, Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in
like displaying characters on-screen, reading a character response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces
from the keyboard, accessing disk files and memory etc. (GUIs). It was a 16 Bit OS running on top of DOS providing
 Command.com provides the shell or the user and system Multitasking and GUI
commands  Windows 3.0 (1990) and Windows Workgroup 3.11 (1992)
 The new Windows versions provide emulated DOS improved the design and were 16/32 Bit OS. Windows 3.1 had
command interface (cmd). Internet Explorer browser as a part of the OS.
 Later came Windows 95 (1995), Windows 98 (1998) and
Windows ME (2000) which were 32 Bit OS and used FAT File
System and supported DOS also.

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Brief History cont’ Brief History con’t

Windows Operating System UNIX Operating System
 NTFS was introduced in 1993 as the file system for Windows NT  Servers generally run on Linux or other Unix-like
server and it was later adopted as default File system for all later systems
releases of Windows client and server OS.
 UNIX was designed as a Multi-User and Multi-
 Windows NT 4.0 (1996) was a popular server OS which was later
replaced by Windows 2000 (2000). NT was the true Multi-User
Tasking OS
and Multi-Tasking OS based on NTFS File System.  Various Proprietary UNIX OS like IBM AIX, SUN
 Windows XP (2001), Vista (2006), (2003) and 2008 (2010)are all Solaris, SGI IRIX, HP HP-UX etc and public
available in 32 bit and 64 bit versions. domain OS like various variants of LINUX are
 The most recent client version of Windows is Windows Vista; available.
Windows 2000 Server,2003,2008,the most recent server version  Today most of the proprietary OS are also available
is Windows Server 2008,8R2 and 2012(2012R2).
free and for x86 platforms also.
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Brief History con’t Boot Loader

Apple Operating System  Booting is a process that starts operating systems when
 Apple introduced the Macintosh OS (Mac OS) in the user turns on a computer system.
1984 which had a graphical user interface  A boot sequence is the initial set of operations that the
computer performs when it is switched on.
 Various versions have come since then and the
current version is Mac OS X v10.5 “Leopard”  The bootloader typically loads the main operating
system for the computer.
 Apple OS was based on Unix (much like BSD
 The bootloader may be multistage
Unix) and so it has always been more robust and
 In Desktop Computers, the boot process involve
faster than windows.
running of system BIOS followed by the second stage
 The processor used in Apple computers was bootloader like GRUB, BOOTMGR, LILO or NTLDR
PowerPC until 2006 when they switched over to which is located in the boot sector of the boot device
Intel platform. or the hard disk.

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Operating System (OS) How OS works?

 When a computer is powered on, it loads the OS,
normally from the disk drive into RAM.
 Kernel: portion of OS code that interact with the
computer hardware.
 Shell: portion that interfaces with the applications and
user using either the command line interface (CLI) or
graphical user interface (GUI).
 CLI, user interacts directly with the system in text-based
environment by entering commands on the keyboard at
command prompt.
 GUI users interact with the system in an environment
that uses graphical images, multimedia, and text. Its
 Mediates between the application and computer, and user friendly and requires less knowledge.
control peripheral devices.
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Functions of an OS Types of an operating system

 Resource management: allocate computer resource Operating systems can be categorized according to
such as CPU time, main memory, secondary storage, availability, number of users, type of interface design
i/o devices for use. and manufacturer:
 Data management: govern the input & output of data
and their location storage and retrieval. According to manufacturer
 Task management: monitors, control, schedules and
 Microsoft window: XP, Vista, 2003 Server,
prepares jobs for execution.
windows7,8 ,10
 Memory management
 UNIX-Based
 File management
 Booting the computer  Linux (Ubuntu)
 Provides user interface  Macintosh OS
 Enforces protection policies
 Provides a variety of support services
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Types of an operating system

User Interface
Single-User/Single-Tasking Operating Systems:
• User interface
 Allows a single user to perform just one task at a time
• A function of the operating system that allows
 Take up little space on disk
individuals to access and command the computer
 Run on inexpensive computers
• Command-based user interface (CLI)
 Examples include; MS-DOS and Palm OS for palm
• A particular user interface that requires text
handheld computers.
commands be given to the computer to perform
basic activities E.g., unix, DOS Single-User/Multi-Tasking Operating Systems:
• Graphical user interface (GUI)  Allows a single user to perform two or more functions
• A user interface that uses pictures (icons) and at once.
menus displayed on the screen to send commands to  Commonly used on personal computers.
the computer system E.g. Windows, MAC OS  Examples include; Microsoft Windows and MAC
OS.
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Types of an operating system Types of an operating system

Real-Time operating Systems:
4) Multi-User/Multitasking
Operating Systems: - - Very first, relatively small OS.
 Allows multiple users to - - Also referred to as embedded OSs
use programs that are - - Built into a circuitry of a device, not loaded from a
simultaneously running disk drive
on a single network
server. - - RTOS is needed to run real-time applications.
 Here, each user is given a - - A real time application is an application that responds
user session on the server. to certain inputs extremely quickly.
 UNIX, Linux are - - As the name suggests, there is a deadline associated
examples. with tasks and a RTOS adheres to this deadline as
 Maintenance can be easy. missing a deadline can cause affects ranging from
 Requires a powerful undesired to catastrophic.
computer.
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Types of an operating system

The two most common types of user interfaces are graphical
System Software
and command line.  A utility program: is a program used to enhance
1) Graphical user Interfaces (GUI):
performance of the system. Utilities are used to
manage disks, troubleshoot hardware problems….
 Most common interface used in versions of;
Windows, MAC OS, in some versions of LINUX and  Some independent software developers offer utilities
UNIX. for sale separately. E.g. Norton Utilities by Symantec.
 Uses a mouse to work with graphical objects such as For example
windows, menus, icons, buttons and other tools.  Symantec antivirus
 Can use Shortcuts to open programs or documents.  Partition Magic

 It enables task switching.  Disk defragmentation

 Advantage: It frees a computer user from memorizing  Screen saver

and typing text commands.  Backup, etc…

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System Software System Software

 Device driver: A computer program that can  Compiler: Software that translates a high-
establish communication because it contains level language program into machine
information about the characteristics of your
language.
computer and of the device.

 Each peripheral device requires a device driver.  Input to the compiler is a source file (created
by word processor or editor) containing the
 Helps the computer communicate with that particular text of a high-level language program.
device.
 If it is syntactically correct, compiler will save
 When we add a device to an existing computer, part of
its installation includes adding its device driver to the
in an object file which is a machine language
configuration. instructions for the same job.

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Managing files and folders

Files
 A file is a named collection of data, stored on a storage  What do you do with files and folders?
medium such as a hard disk.  You Create a new file or folder….
 There are two types of files  You Move files and folders; you “nest” folders
 Data files contains text, images, or other data that can be  You Open a document file… Let’s see:
used by a program.  OS looks at file extension
 Executable files contains programs or instructions that  OS checks if enough free memory space
tell the computer how to perform a task.  OS finds and loads the APP (if not loaded)
 Filename extensions describe a file’s contents. For  OS finds and loads the document
example Executable files usually end in .exe, word files  OS keeps track of what data goes with what program (all
sharing same RAM)
end in .doc, adobe acrobat documents end in .pdf etc.
 OS turns control over to the APP

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Application Software Categories of Applications Software

Application Software: Tells the computer • Word processing software for creating text-based
how to accomplish specific tasks, such as word documents
processing or drawing, for the user. • Spreadsheets for creating numeric-based documents
such as budgets.
Most applications are purchased on diskette or
CD-ROM. • Presentation programs for creating and presenting
electronic slide shows.
They are installed by copying the programs • Graphics programs for designing illustrations or
from the diskettes/CD-ROM to the hard disk. manipulating photographs, movies etc.
Payroll systems, Inventory Control, Manage • Database management software for building and
student database manipulating large sets of data such as names,
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Word Processors: Spreadsheets:

It is a tool that helps user in creating, editing, and The spreadsheet packages are designed to use
printing documents. Word processors will normally have numbers and formulas to do calculations with
the following capabilities built into them: ease. Examples of spreadsheets include:
- Spell checking  Budgets
- Standard layouts for normal documents  Payrolls
- Some characters appearing in bold print, italics,
 Grade Calculations
or underlined  Address Lists

- Center lines, make text line up on the left side of The most commonly used spreadsheet programs
the paper, or the right side of the paper are Microsoft Excel and Lotus 123.
- Save the document so it can be used again

- Print the document.

Examples: WordPerfect and Microsoft Word

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Actions to prevent virus infection Security Software

 Forget opening unexpected e-mail attachments,  Security software: designed to protect
even if they're from friends computers from various forms of destructive
 Get trained on your computer's anti-virus software software and unauthorized intrusions
and use it.  The terms malicious software and malware refer
 Have multiple backups of important files. This to any computer program designed to secretly
lowers the chance that all are infected. enter a computer, gain unauthorized access to
 Install security updates for your operating system data, or disrupt normal processing operations
and programs as soon as possible.
 Jump at the chance to learn more about your
computer. This will help you spot viruses.

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What is computer virus? Types of Computer Virus

 Computer virus refers to a program which damages  Computer Worm
computer systems and/or destroys or erases data files
OR  Trojan Horse
 A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself
and infect a computer without the permission or knowledge of  Spyware
the owner.
 One of the first detected virus was the Creeper virus in the
 Time Bomb
early 70’s
 Logical Bomb
 Before computer networks became widespread, most viruses
spread on removable media, particularly floppy disk.
 Micros Virus
 Once it’s running, it spreads by inserting copies of itself into
other executable code or documents  Script Virus
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Basic Computer Virus

 Trojan Horses Types of Computer Virus con’t
 appears as interesting program file but when installed it  Boot Sector Virus
allows intruders to access and read your files  Infects the boot or master boot record(MBR) of diskettes and hard
drives through the sharing of infected disks and pirated software
 Worms applications
 Once your hard drive is infected all diskettes that you use in your
 virus that copies and multiplies itself by computer will be infected
using computer networks and security flaws  Program Virus
 Becomes active when the program file (usually with extensions .BIN,
 E-mail Viruses .COM, .EXE, .OVL, .DRV) carrying the virus is opened
 use e-mail messages to spread which allow it to  It then makes copies of itself and will infect other programs on the
computer
automatically forward itself to thousands of people  Multipartite Virus
 Hybrid of a Boot Sector and Program viruses
 It infects program files and when the infected program is active it will
affect the boot record

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What does malware/virus do?

Types of Computer Virus con’t
 Stealth Virus
 Disguises itself to prevent from being detected by antivirus software
 It alters its file size or conceals itself in memory
 Polymorphic Virus
 Act like a chameleon, changing its virus signature (binary pattern)
every time it multiples and infects a new file
 Macro Virus
 Programmed as a macro embedded in a document, usually found in
Microsoft Word and Excel
 Once it gets in to your computer, every document you produce will
become infected
 Relatively new type of virus and may slip by your antivirus software
if you don't have the most recent version installed

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Signs Your Computer is Infected

/Symptoms of computer virus Typical things that some current Personal
 Computer runs slower than usual Computer (PC) viruses do
 Display unusual error messages distorted  Display a message
menus, and dialog boxes.  Erase files
 New icons appear on desktop  Scramble data on a hard disk
 Fail to print correctly  Cause erratic screen behavior
 Programs disappear from the computer  Halt the PC
 Reformat the hard disk  Many viruses do nothing obvious at all except
 Duplicate of files spread!
 Computer restarts all itself often
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Sources of computer virus

Actions to prevent virus infection  Fake games
 Always update your anti-virus software at least
weekly.  Infected software
 Back up your important files and ensure that they  Opening infected files
can be restored.  Contact with infected systems or devices e.g
 Change the computer's boot sequence to always moving flashes from one point to another.
start the PC from its hard drive  Free or shareware software
 Don't share Drive C: without a password and
without read-only restrictions.
 Empty floppy drives of diskettes before turning on
computers, especially laptops.

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ANY
QUESTION
? THANK YOU

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