All the computer users are very much familiar with the word Operating System, but what exactly an operating system is. This is the software of a computer system that manages diverse array of computer operations and manages computer resources. It also hosts computer applications and handles the operations of computer hardware. This is the medium of interaction by which the application program and computer hardware are connected. Almost all the high-end electronic gadgets such as desktop computers, laptop computers, PDAs, notebook computers, the mobile phones comprise some kind of operating system.

Operating systems are of various types. These include Real-time Operating System, Multi-user and Single-user Operating Systems, Multi-tasking and Single-tasking Operating Systems, Distributed Operating System, and Embedded System. Access Control, Execution of Programs, User Interface, Interrupt Handling, Management of Files, Computer Security, Computer Networking, Memory Management, and Scheduling are some of the most important factors of an Operating System. For operating system support, you can consult a computer help provider.

Access Control – All the computer operating systems have access control facility with which the administrator can protect the computer from unwanted access and can also limit the access to a user.

Execution of Programs – In computer language, programs in execution are termed as processes. To execute a program, the operating system kernel generates a process. It loads program code from the disk and allocate memory to it ahead of running the program.

Memory Management – To run programs, it requires space. And hard disk space is used in this regard. The operating system kernel takes care of the allocation and management of memory. All the modern day operating systems apply segmentation and paging mechanisms for memory protection. An OS can use a particular memory location for performing multiple tasks.  The concept of and swapping or paging and virtual memory is used in this context.

Computer Security – You can create multiple user profiles on operating systems. To protect the user’s security, most of the operating systems need to insert username and password for that particular account.

Management of Files – Operating systems are responsible for handling the application program for accessing files stored on the disk. Earlier, the OS did not support diverse file systems. But now the system has been changed. Updated operating systems, like Unix and Linux allow various types of programs for accessing various system resources and devices of different file systems.

Computer Networking – More than one computer could be connected via networking and operating systems play the key role in this regard. Various networking protocols are supported by the OS and for this reasons, computers running different operating systems don’t have any problem to work over a common network. By networking protocols users of all the computers can access resources on remote computers very easily.

From the discussion, it is quite evident that operating systems play a very crucial part in facilitating user access to PC. Operating system not just schedule computer tasks or control access to resources but also manages computer memory and handles various types of files.