Windows Operating System

Qingwen Qian

Windows Operating System

Part 1. Preface--What is operating systemPart 2. Windows versus other popular operating systems.Part 3. Windows operating system seriesPart 4. Windows NT

Part 1. Preface--What is operating system(1) The operating system in a computer

(The middle layer represents operating system)

User application

|-----Executive services| ----File system|------Kernal| ----Network Services|------Hardware abstraction layer

Hardware

(2) Software contains 2 parts System programs (manage the operation of the

computer) Application programs (solve the problem of

users)

Operating system is the fundamental of allsystem programs. It controls all computerresources and provides the base upon which theapplication programs can be written.

Part 2. Windows versus other popular operating systems

(1) There are 6 types of famous operatingsystems:

DOSMacintosh OSOS/2LINUXUNIXWindows

(2) Compare the popularity and/or strength of above 7operating systems

DOS was once widely used, but currently users will notdirectly faced it. So we do not need to waste energy here.

OS/2 and Macintosh OS are widely used, but they arestill far behind the left 3 operating systems—LINUX,UNIX and Windows

LINUX is very popular mainly because it is a `free'software. Although it has strong features, but still not aspowerful as UNIX

UNIX is the operating system that thecomputer professionals prefer because it isvery reliable and has strong features. But it ishard to control and hard to get familiar withbecause it communicate with users mainly bycommand lines. Also it is more expensivethan Windows operating system

Windows get more and more popular.Windows 95/98 is installed in most of thepersonal computers. And Windows NT, asits very quick development, are beatingUNIX and becoming the NO.1 choice forenterprises and organizations (NTWorkstation for small networks and NTserver for bigger networks).

Part 3. Windows operating systemseries(1) Advantages of Windows operatingsystem Excellent GUI (graphical user interface). So

easy to learn and use Good compatibility (Windows95/98)

Windows95/98 can run any older softwarewhich runs under MS-DOS, Window3.11 orOS/2 1.3

Good network services (Windows NT)As we mentioned above, enterprises andorganizations may either choose NTWorkstation for their small networks orchoose NT server for their bigger networks.

Competitive/inexpensive price

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(2) The history of windows

Windows 1.0Windows 2.0Windows/386Windows 3.0Windows 3.1Windows 3.11Windows for Workgroups 3.1Windows for Workgroups 3.11Win32s for Windows 3.1Windows 95Windows 98Windows 98 Second EditionWindows 98 Third Edition

Windows NT 3.1Windows NT 3.5Windows NT 4.0 ("Cairo")Windows NT 5.0 (Windows 2000)

(3) I focus on introducing the followingversions

Windows 1.0Windows 2.0Windows 3.0Windows 95Windows 98Windows NT

Windows 1.0Microsoft first announced Windows in November 1983The major features of Windows 1.0:

Graphical user interface with drop-down menus, tiledwindows and mouse support

Device-independent screen and printerCo-operative multitasking of Windows applications

Windows 2.0Introduced in the fall of 1987With the addition of icons and overlapping windows,

windows became a viable environment fordevelopment of major applications (such as Excel,Word for Windows, Corel Draw, Ami, PageMakerand Micrografx Designer. When Windows/386 (seenext section) was released, Microsoft renamedWindows to Windows/286 for consistency.

Windows 95This, the successor to Windows 3.1 and Windows for

Workgroups 3.11, was released in the first half of1995. It is a 32-bit system providing full pre-emptivemultitasking, advanced file systems, threading,networking and more. It include MS-DOS 7.0, but willtake over from DOS completely after starting. It doesnot include Windows NT's security, multiprocessorsupport, server capabilities or multiple API personalitymodules. It includes a completely revised userinterface, along the lines of "Cairo", but not taken asfar as that product. Detailed information aboutWindows 95 will be provided later in this paper.

Windows 98The new features in Windows 98: The most obvious new feature of Windows 98 is its

so-called Active Desktop, which integrates theInternet Explorer 4.0 web browser into the Windowsenvironment. Although IE 4.0 is already available as afree add-on for Windows 95 and NT 4.0 systems,Windows 98 boots faster, Internet Explorer andOutlook both loaded more quickly than they did inWin95, plug-and-play hardware detection is muchfaster, and the new OS' optimization scheduler thatautomatically rearranges the disk-block arrangementyour frequently used programs is likely to furtherboost application load times for most users. Itsignificantly improved the loading speed of MicrosoftWord 97 and other applications

Windows NT (please see the following part 4)

Part 4. Windows NT1)Windows NT is the most advanced version of theWindows operating system. Windows NT is a 32-bitoperating system that supports preemptivemultitasking.There are actually two versions of Windows NT:Windows NT Server, designed to act as a server innetworks, and Windows NT Workstation for stand-alone or client workstations. The first version of Windows NT (3.1) was released in

1993 Following the Windows NT 3.1, Windows NT 3.5 and

Windows NT 4.0 were released.

(2) The differences between NT Workstation and NT Server

Items Workstation Server Connection to other clients 10 Unlimited Connection to other networks Unlimited Unlimited Multiprocessing 2 CPUs 4 CPUs RAS 1 connection 255 connections Directory Replication Import Import and Export Macintosh Services No Yes Logon Validation No Yes Disk Fault Tolerance No Yes Network Peer-to-peer Server

(3)Windows NT 4.0 NT 4.0 is the currently prevailing version of Windows NT. NT 4.0 contains1. Windows NT Workstation 4.02. Windows NT Server 4.0

Windows NT Workstation 4.0 is the operating systemdesigned for serious power users and desktopworkstations, where users demand high reliability, pre-emptive multitasking of programs and support forOpenGL graphics applications. It can be used as a serverin a workgroup, where the number of clients it supportsis 10 or less.For the general features of Windows NT Workstation

4.0, please refer the web site:http://www.cit.ac.nz/smac/winnt/default.htm

Windows NT Server 4.0 is the operating systemdesigned for robust scalable networks based on domains.Where servers are required to handle more than 10clients, NT Server is the best choice of operating system.It has been especially optimized to give goodperformance as an application server, and has additionaltools to ease network administration problems. .For the general features of Windows NT Server 4.0,

please refer the web site:http://www.cit.ac.nz/smac/winnt/default.htm

Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 supply severalservices1. File & Print Services2. Web Services3. Application Services4. Management Services5. Security Services6. Communication Services7. Streaming Media Services

(4) New features in Windows NT 5.0

NT 5.0 is the next major release of NT.Win NT 5 is easier to use and manage. As afile server, it's more scalable and flexible.As an application server, it supports hugedata sets. As an Internet/intranet server, it ismore secure and standards-based. Win NT 5has one more scheduled beta in its cycle andis expected to be released sometime towardthe middle of 1999. When it hits the market,we expect that the enhancements it offerswill cement Win NT's future as the corporatedesktop of choice and accelerate itsrespectability as a mission-critical server.

(5) Future trend of Windows operating system

Microsoft is planning to combine windows95/98 series with Windows NTseries so that a more powerful and unique Windows operating system will bebuilt. It is very good news for users of Microsoft products. And it is alsothe reason why I only concentrate on Windows NT in part 4 instead ofconcentrate on both Windows95/98 and NT.

Reference:

http://www.zdnet.com/products/stories/reviews/0,4161,2152026,00.htmlhttp://www.metrics.com/WinFAQ/winver.htmhttp://www.metrics.com/WinFAQ/win95.htmhttp://www.shore.net/~wihl/unix2nt.htmlhttp://www.conitech.com/windows/nt5.htmlhttp://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Software/Operating_Systems/Windows/http://www.cit.ac.nz/smac/winnt/default.htm