Operating Systems

An Operating System is a computer program which main functions include the management of computer processes , system memory allocation , system support , and network facilitation ( Operating System . Common to modern operating systems today is the use of Graphical User Interface (GUI , which allows users to control data using picture representations of commands

Clearly , even without the confirmation of marketing studies , Microsoft Windows has become the most widely-used operating system in the world ( Windows . This is relative to the other operating systems such as Apple 's Macintosh System (Mac OS , IBM 's OS /2

Warp and UNIX variants such as Linux and BSD

Microsoft Windows started as the successor of Microsoft 's previous disk-based operating system MS-DOS which had been used as the then IBM PC 's main operating system ( Operating System . Its development started in 1981 as Interface Manager (Bellis ) and its first version Windows 1 .0 was released in November of 1985 with the promise of graphical interface , device-independent graphics and multi-tasking support ( Windows . From there , Windows continued its advancement from the addition of icons and the development of overlapping windows in Windows 2 .0 , the realization of and printer sharing capabilities of Windows 3 .0 , the revision of user interface in Windows 95 , the integration of Web Browsing and the addition of a browser-like interface in Windows 98 , the integration of Internet , Intranet , Extranet and management applications in the active directory in Windows 2000 , to the enhancement of multimedia features in Windows ME ( Windows . Today the most recently released and most upgraded version of Windows is the Windows XP which is soon to be replaced by Windows Vista , Microsoft 's newest version of Windows which has made history by taking the longest year to develop ( Windows Vista Review

Security

Microsoft prides itself with the advancements it has ensured in Windows Vista , particularly in terms of security , reliability and operational efficiencies . According to Microsoft (2006 , the users of Windows Vista are expected to experience more ease in setting up the system and less expenses in maintenance , compared to the previous versions of Windows ( Microsoft Windows Vista

A popular downside of Microsoft Windows editions is its security and its proneness to threats such as viruses , spywares and other forms of malwares . Efforts have been done to combat these threats by providing users with free updates particularly the release of Service Pack 2 which could be easily downloaded in Microsoft 's website . However , the security imposed by the availability of such updates could never guarantee the security of users , as the previous versions of Windows are known to be prone to malwares by nature ( Microsoft Windows Vista

Microsoft specifically architectured Windows Vista to correct this previous versions ' downside . The development in security is characterized by the provision of innovations in the platform which is said to provide a more in-depth or layered system defense . Included in this layered system defense are many security features ( Microsoft Windows Vista

Windows Vista 's and Registry Virtualization allows restricted visibility of any changes...