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Each new computer that brought home from the store has an operating system on it. But what most new computer users do not realize is that without an operating system, equipment that would be a mere shell of possibilities. A power without computer operating system, will not show anything more than a lot of confusing text messages that describe the computer’s boot process. At the end of this process, looking for a computer operating system and if not found, the question is to tell it where it is.

In early computers do not have an operating system and if you have experience with computers at the beginning of the eighties, we remind you that most of them do not even have a hard drive! These old computers run an MS-DOS operating system of the type of drivers stored on a diskette, and in order to use a program, users remove the boot disk and then insert a new floppy disk containing the program. The diskette not only saves the program (word processor, spreadsheet, etc.) but also holds drivers that the program needed to communicate with your computer hardware. As you can imagine, the cumbersome process of changing floppy diskette led to the birth of the operating system.

An operating system is a software program that controls how your computer hardware (and software) works. It manages the activity of each component, and then shows that the activity as a user-friendly interface (GUI). It keeps track of things that exist in a computer’s hard drive as well. But perhaps most importantly for the end user, the operating system is responsible for translating commands issued with a keyboard and mouse in binary code (010110101 things) that can communicate with a set of speakers, a printer, a scanner, and much more.

With an operating system installed on a computer’s hard drive, users no longer need to boot a computer with a diskette, or need to run programs from a diskette. All drivers of a program are stored in the computer and is used when a program is initiated.

Apple Macintosh was among the first of a pair of systems to create a user-to-hardware relationship through a user-friendly interface. Today, we have a good number of operating systems. Some of the most popular are Windows Vista, Mac OS X, Zeta, IBM, Unix and Linux. But even still, operating systems have spread to the non-computer devices such as game consoles, portable music players and PDAs. Regardless of the device, the operating system on which serves the same purpose across the board: allow users hardware for communication.

When you think about upgrading your computer to a new operating system, be careful to make sure you have the means necessary hardware components. We try to improve one of our machines from Windows 98 to Windows XP, but warned that the former may not be compatible with the hardware technology XP. Apparently, the Windows XP operating system requires that the components were not developed at the time Windows 98 was distributed and if we had to install Windows XP on this team anyway, the new operating system to do on the hardware that the computer can not had. And it would be an instant recipe for failure.

Also be careful about installing operating systems that are incompatible with existing hardware. The hardware for Macintosh computers is very different from the hardware of Windows computers and under no circumstance Windows operating system work on a Macintosh machine!