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What Is an Operating System?

A computer's operating system is one of the most important
"parts" of the computer.
Some years ago an operating system was defined as the
software that controls the hardware.
Almost every type of computer, including cellular telephones,
needs an operating system in order to operate properly.
The operating system tells the computer what to do by
controlling the system resources such as the processor,
memory, disk space, etc.
The operating system allows the user to work on the computer
without having to know all the details about how the hardware
works. Operating systems primarily are resource managers
– Hardware
– Processors
– Memory
– Input/output devices
– Communication devices
– Software
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Inc. All rights reserved.
 2

The Three Elements of an OS

User Interface – The part of the OS that you interface
with.
Kernel – The core of the OS. Interacts with the BIOS
(at one end), and the UI (at the other end).
File Management System – Organizes and manages
files.

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Operating System purpose

File Management

Application Management

Built-in Utility Programs

Control of Computer Hardware

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Operating System Types

Single-user, single task - As the name implies, this operating
system is designed to manage the computer so that one user
can effectively do one thing at a time. The Palm OS for Palm
handheld computers is a good example of a modern single-
user, single-task operating system.
Single-user, multi-tasking - This is the type of operating
system most people use on their desktop and laptop computers
today. Microsoft's Windows and Apple's MacOS platforms
are both examples of operating systems that will let a single
user have several programs in operation at the same time
Multi-user - A multi-user operating system allows many
different users to take advantage of the computer's resources
simultaneously. E.g Unix, and mainframe operating
systems, are examples of multi-user operating systems.

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 5

What Is a File System?

Huge amounts of data that is stored on the hard drive there has to be
a way to organize and control it.
A file is a collection of bytes of information treated as a single unit.
It is given a name to make it easy to find and use later.
The file system keeps track of where a file is actually resident on a
disk.
A disk (hard disk, floppy, optical disk) is subdivided into directories
or folders.
The top level folder on a disk is known as the root.
The root is generally subdivided into subfolders.
Any folder or subfolder can contain files and other folders.
The fully-qualified filename includes the name of the file and the
path to the folder in which it resides:
c:\courses\061\cit141\chapter10.ppt

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windows registered file extension

A particular file extension can be registered and associated
with a particular program.
– .docx files are associated with MS Word
– .xlsx files are associated with MS Excel
– .txt files are associated with Notepad
– .html files are associated with IE
This is how Windows knows what to do when you double-
click a file in My Computer.

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Windows file system types 7
The File Allocation Table (FAT) file system is a simple file
system originally designed for small disks and simple folder
structures.
If FAT table is not regularly updated, it can lead to data loss.
FAT File Systems. FAT32, FAT16, FAT12.
FAT32 File systems
FAT it is the most simplest file systems supported by
Windows NT.
The FAT file system is characterized by the file allocation
table.
It is compatible with everything(any media)
It have not modern features
It is no any security
it have not transaction log
It increase data corruption
 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
 8

Con…
FAT supports only read-only, hidden, and archive file
attributes.
FAT Naming Convention
all filenames must be created with the ASCII character set.
The name of a file or directory can be up to eight characters
long.
The name must start with either a letter or number and can
contain any characters except for the following:
."/\[]:;|=,
The name cannot contain any spaces.
The following names are reserved:
CON, AUX, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, LPT1, LPT2,
LPT3

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 9

NTFS file system

It is introduced in 1993
NTFS is the file system used by Microsoft in the Windows
operating system.
It is self hidden.
Transaction log
No data corruption as FAT
It is secure file and folder
A log of transactions against the components is maintained so
that CHKDSK need only roll back transactions to the last
commit point in order to recover consistency within the file
system.

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 10

NTFS Naming Conventions

File and directory names can be up to 255 characters

long.
Names can contain any characters except for the
following:
?"/\<>*|:
Reading assignment HPFS file system

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 11

cluster

In computer file systems, a cluster or allocation unit is a unit

of disk space allocation for files and directories. To reduce the
overhead of managing on-disk data structures, the filesystem
does not allocate individual disk sectors by default, but
contiguous groups of sectors, called clusters.
On a disk that uses 512-byte sectors, a 512-byte cluster
contains one sector, whereas a 4-kibibyte (KiB) cluster
contains eight sectors.
A cluster is the smallest logical amount of disk space that can
be allocated to hold a file. Storing small files on a file system
with large clusters will therefore waste disk space; such
wasted disk space is called slack space(fragmentation)

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 12

boot sector

A boot sector is a reserved sector of a disk or storage device

that contains the necessary data or code used to complete the
boot process of a computer or disk.
A boot sector is also known as a boot block.
A boot sector stores boot record data that gives instructions
to a computer when it is started. There are two different types
of boot sectors:
Master boot record (MBR)
Volume boot record (VBR)
For a partitioned disk, the boot sector consists of a master
boot record. A non-partitioned disk consists of a volume boot
record.

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Con…

The boot sector usually has boot sequence information,

such as a list of disk partitions, startup program location or
operating system (OS).
When a computer is started, the data/program in the boot
sector is loaded into the computer memory. This data may
include the OS or any other startup program.
The boot sector is generally located at the start of a disk for
rapid computer access.

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 14

What Is Fragmentation?
Fragmentation refers to the condition of a disk in which files are
divided into pieces scattered around the disk.
Fragmentation occurs naturally when you use a disk frequently,
creating, deleting, and modifying files.
At some point, the operating system needs to store parts of a file in
noncontiguous clusters. This is entirely invisible to users, but it can
slow down the speed at which data is accessed because the disk
drive must search through different parts of the disk to put together a
single file.
RAM Fragmentation
Fragmentation can also refer to RAM that has small, unused holes
scattered throughout it. This is called fragmentation. With modern
operating systems that use a more common type of RAM
fragmentation. This occurs when memory is allocated and the if the
size is larger than the amount of memory requested.

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How fragmentation is occur

Your system looks for free space to write the file to, it finds 1-
megabyte block of free space that you have just made
available by deleting the old file, and starts writing the new
file to it, and as one would expect, 1 megabyte later it runs out
of space in this spot and starts looking for the next available
block of free space. If the next window of space is 1 megabyte
in size, then your newly saved file gets broken into 2 pieces
only. But let’s say the next block of free space is half a
megabyte, then having written part of your file into this spot,
the system looks for more space and your file is now broken
into more than 2 pieces. This is a simplified explanation of
how fragmentation occurs.

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Con…

Now imagine the amount of work the read-write head has to

do to retrieve the file on the left and compare it to the amount
if work it has to do jumping place to place to fetch the file on
the right.
It is obvious that it will take longer to access the file on the
right. The more pieces the file is broken into, and the further
apart those pieces are scattered on the hard drive, the longer it
takes for the read-write head to retrieve it, which results in
slower performance.

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 17

Registry Editing in Windows

What is Registry?
The Registry is a database used to store settings and options for
the 32 bit versions of Microsoft Windows including Windows 95,
98, ME and NT/2000.
It contains information and settings for all the hardware,
software, users, and preferences of the PC.
Whenever a user makes changes to a Control Panel settings,
System Policies, or installed software, the changes are reflected
and stored in the Registry.

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Con…
There are six main branches, each containing a specific
portion of the information stored in the Registry. They are as
follows:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT - This branch contains all of your
Windows shortcuts, and core aspects of the Windows user
interface.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER - This branch links to the section of
HKEY_USERS appropriate for the user currently logged onto
the PC and contains information such as logon names,
desktop settings, and Start menu settings.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE - This branch contains computer
specific information about the type of hardware and software,
this information is used for all users who log onto this
computer.
 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
 19

Con…

HKEY_USERS - This branch contains individual preferences

for each user of the computer, each user is represented by a SID
sub-key located under the main branch.
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG - This branch links to the section
of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE appropriate for the current hardware
configuration.
HKEY_DYN_DATA - This branch points to the part of
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, for use with the Plug-&-Play features
of Windows, this section is dymanic and will change as devices
are added and removed from the system.

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 20

Managing and Editing Registry

The Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE) is included with most

version of Windows (although you won't find it on the Start
Menu) it enables you to view, search and edit the data within
the Registry.
There are several methods for starting the Registry Editor, the
simplest is to click on the Start button, then select Run, and in
the Open box type "regedit", and if the Registry Editor is
installed it should now open and look like the image below.

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

 21

Using Regedity to modify your Registry

Once you have started the Regedity you will notice that on the left
side there is a tree with folders, and on the right the contents
(values) of the currently selected folder.
Like Windows explorer, to expand a certain branch, click on the
plus sign [+] to the left of any folder, or just double-click on the
folder. To display the contents of a key (folder), just click the
desired key, and look at the values listed on the right side.
You can add a new key or value by selecting New from the Edit
menu, or by right-clicking your mouse.
you can rename any value and almost any key with the same
method used to rename files; right-click on an object and click
rename, or click on it twice (slowly), or just press F2 on the
keyboard.
you can delete a key or value by clicking on it, and pressing Delete
on the keyboard, or by right-clicking on it, and choosing Delete.
 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
 22

Con…
You can also backup your rigidity
Disable/Enable registry editing.

 2004 Deitel & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.