Operating
System Vocabulary Words
- Operating system - (OS)
The low-level software that handles the interface to peripheral hardware,
schedules tasks, allocates storage, and presents a default interface to
the user when no application
program is running.
- User Interface - The
aspects of a computer system or program which can be seen (or heard or
otherwise perceived) by the human user, and the commands and mechanisms
the user uses to control its operation and input data.
- Graphical User
Interface - (GUI) The use of pictures rather than just words to represent
the input and output of a program. A program with a GUI runs under some windowing
system (e.g. The X
Window System, Microsoft
Windows, Acorn
RISC OS,
NEXTSTEP).
The program displays certain icons, buttons, dialogue
boxes etc. in its windows on
the screen and the user controls it mainly by moving a pointer on
the screen (typically controlled by a mouse) and
selecting certain objects by pressing buttons on the mouse while the
pointer is pointing at them.
- Desktop - In graphical
user interfaces, a desktop is the metaphor used to portray file
systems. Such a desktop consists of pictures, called icons, that show
cabinets, files, folders, and
various types of documents
(that is, letters, reports, pictures).
- Icons - A small picture
intended to represent something (a file, directory, or action) in a graphical
user interface.
- Start button – button
usually in the bottom left hand side of an operating system windows 95 and
up
- Multitasking - A
technique used in an operating
system for sharing a single processor between several independent
jobs.
- Task switching - Refers
to operating
systems or operating
environments that enable you to switch from one program to another
without losing your spot in the first program. Many utilities are
available that add task switching to DOS systems.
- Active window – Refers
to objects
currently being displayed or used. For example, in graphical
user interfaces, the active window is the
window currently receiving mouse and keyboard input.
- Title bar - A bar on
top of a window.
The title bar contains the name of the file or application.
- File- A collection of data or information
that has a name,
called the filename
- Folder - In graphical
user interfaces such as Windows and the Macintosh
environment,
a folder is an object
that can contain multiple documents.
- Maximize - In graphical
user interfaces, to enlarge a window to its
maximum size.
- Minimize - In graphical
user interfaces, to convert a window into an icon.
- Restore - In graphical
user interfaces, to restore means to return a window to its
original size
- Extensions – filename
extension – the type of file that the file is
- Window - An enclosed,
rectangular area on a display screen.
Most modern operating
systems and applications
have graphical
user interfaces that let you divide your display into several windows.
- Taskbar – menu bar,
which is usually at the bottom of the windows operating system, which most
programs running, appears in.
- Pull down menu – A menu in a graphical
user interface, whose title is normally visible but whose contents are
revealed only when the user activates it
- Menu Bar - A
permanently displayed menu spread
horizontally across the top of the screen or window. When the mouse is
pressed over an item on the menu bar, a pull-down
menu appears.
