MSIT 650 Platform & Network Tech: Operating System Solutions

This document provides detailed solutions to questions related to operating system concepts. It covers context switching in Windows, interrupt handling, factors to consider when choosing an OS (Windows, Linux, or Mac), file system types in Windows and Mac, steps to install Windows XP in a VM on Windows 10, differences between standard PC and server operating systems, concurrent user limits, device driver installation, Windows XP upgrade limitations, Harvard vs. von Neumann architecture, CPU cache memory, differences between Linux and UNIX, page faults, multiprocessing vs. multitasking, time-sharing and multi-user systems, and hard vs. soft real-time systems. The document also includes relevant references.

Running Head: IT 0
IT Write Up
IT Write Up: Operating System
(Student details :)
2/27/2019

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Contents
IT Write Up................................................................................................................................2
Solution 1...................................................................................................................................2
Solution 2...................................................................................................................................2
Solution 3...................................................................................................................................2
Solution 4...................................................................................................................................3
Solution 5...................................................................................................................................3
Solution 6...................................................................................................................................5
Solution 7...................................................................................................................................5
Solution 8...................................................................................................................................5
Solution 9...................................................................................................................................6
Solution 10.................................................................................................................................7
Solution 11.................................................................................................................................7
Solution 12.................................................................................................................................7
Solution 13.................................................................................................................................7
Solution 14.................................................................................................................................8
Solution 15.................................................................................................................................8
Solution 16.................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................8

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IT Write Up
Solution 1
The windows operating system (referred as WOS) changes from one process to the
next through a context switch, which is the mechanism of storing and restoring the state or
context of the CPU in the Process Control block (PCB). Basically, it enables a running
process execution to be restarted from the similar point in future time. In this way, by using
this method, a context switcher allows multiple processes to stake one CPU. Hence, context
switching is an indispensable feature of a multi-tasking operating system (Le, 2018).
Solution 2
An interrupt is a kind of signal from a device, which is attached to a computer which
needs the operating system to halt as well as figure out what is to be done next. In
computer WOS, an interrupt handler, is often known as an interrupt service routine (referred
as ISR), is a block of code allied with an exact interrupt condition. In this way, an interrupt
handler is a low-level complement of incident handlers.
Solution 3
Out of the 3 basic operating systems include windows, Linux and mac, if I had a
customer who was new to PC systems, then following questions I would have asked him or
her to determine which operating system they should use as well as purchase (Schofield,
2016). These are the 3 main factors to be considered when someone new wants to purchase
new operating system:
1. Which are the main soft wares and applications those you want to run on your PC
system to do the specific job?
2. Questions related to hardware requirements and availability, flexibility, open source,
security as well as portability.
3. Which operating system you can afford easily?

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Solution 4
File systems types which WOSs employs include NTFS, and FAT. The largest file
size for the NTFS file type is 16TB while for FAT32, it is 4GB. In addition, Mac OS X uses
file system types include HFS+, exFAT, FAT32, and along with read-only support for NTFS.
In a FAT32 drive file size cannot be more than 4 GB in size while using by MAC. In
addition, a FAT32 file system size must be less than 8 TB (Agarwal, 2012).
Source: (Agarwal, 2012)
Solution 5
These are the steps one should use to install a XP operating system into a VM running
on the windows 10 machine:
Firstly, download Windows XP Mode through Microsoft
Source: (Zeltser Security Corporation, 2018)

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Next step should be installing the downloaded Windows XP Mode executable on the
PC which is running windows 10.
Source: (Zeltser Security Corporation, 2018)
Third step will be launching VMware Workstation through importing Windows XP
Mode VM menu.
Source: (Zeltser Security Corporation, 2018)
The last step will be going through the Windows XP setup wizard
Source: (Zeltser Security Corporation, 2018)

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Solution 6
The major differences amid standard PC operating system (POS) and Server operating
system (SOS) which make Server platform more robust are as follows:
1) Unlimited users connections
2) Comprehensive management
3) SOS act as a web server, email server and database server
4) It is an optimized platform for network, rather than local application implementation
5) Utilisation of huge amount of memory
6) Prolonged fault tolerance for avoiding downtimes
7) It is capable to hold a domain
Solution 7
The maximum numbers of concurrent users which the windows 10 operating system
supports are 10. Similarly, the max number of simultaneous users which a Mac operating
system supports is also 10 (Timmwatts, 2015).
Solution 8
These are the steps one should be adopted to install a device driver into a WOS:
1. Step I: Starting Device manager through typing 'Devmgmt.msc' inside the Run dialog-
box.
2. Step II: Expanding the Computer icon as well as make note of the computer’s model.
3. Step III: Right-clicking on the computer model and select Properties.
4. Step IV: Beginning the Upgrade Device Driver Wizard through clicking on the button
named as Update Driver from the Driver tab.
5. Step V: Choosing Display a List of Known Drivers for This Device and click Next
(Shah, 2018).
These are the steps one should be adopted to install a new device into a Mac:

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Source: (Nelson, 2018)
Step I: First of all launch System Preferences on Mac through clicking on this icon in the
Dock.
Step II: Click on the icon of the hardware or device, which is to be installed like Printers &
Scanners icon.
Step III: By default, Mac will auto-select the driver. Hence when the Mac will find a proper
driver for the selected device like printer, it will display the driver's name.
Step IV: Select Software or a driver from the drop-down list and then click OK.
Step V: Click on the Add button for completing the installation of the selected device.
Solution 9
Windows XP is not eligible for an update to Windows 10 with an upgrade path. It
means that no upgrade path exists to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 10 as well as
keep old files, programs and settings. It is not a limitation of Windows 10 but it is a built-in
limitation of Windows XP (Mercer, 2018).
An upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10
1. First we need to utilise the desktop version of Windows Update.
2. Then scroll down to the bottommost of Control Panel as well as Choose Windows
Update.
3. There one will find Windows 10 upgrade is ready and then one can get started with
clicking of a button.

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Solution 10
Harvard architecture (HA) is having separate data as well as instruction busses,
permitting transfers to be executed simultaneously on both of the busses. Whereas von
Neumann architecture owns one bus that is utilised for data transfers as well as instruction
fetches. Therefore, instruction fetches as well as data transfers both must be programmed as
they cannot be executed at the same time (ARM Developer, 2018).
Solution 11
CPU Cache memory typically holds repeatedly utilised instructions or data that
the processor might need in future. Hence, it gives faster access memory than the RAM, as it
is on the similar chip as the processor. In addition, CPU cache reduces the requirement for
recurrent sluggish memory retrievals by main memory and hence improves the overall
performance of the CPU. CPU itself controls the cache usage not operating system (Stake
Exchange, 2018).
Solution 12
The main difference amid Linux and UNIX is that these are two different Operating
Systems and they have some common commands. In addition, important differences are as
follows:
 Linux’s source code is freely available for users while Unix is not freely available for
the general public.
 Linux majorly utilises Graphical User Interface with an OCLI while Unix uses
Command Line Interface (CLI).
 Unix is not portable while Linux OS is portable.
 Linux is highly flexible as well as can be installed on home based PCs while Unix has
an inflexible environment of the hardware.
 Linux is utilised on home based PCs, Smart Phones, Desktops; while UNIX is
majorly used in Server Systems and High End Computers (Stallings, 2012).
Solution 13
Usually a page fault occurs while a program tries to access a memory block which is
not stored in the RAM or physical memory. In this way, an interrupt which occurs when a

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program is requesting data, which is not presently available in real memory is known as page
fault (Stallings, 2012).
Solution 14
Whenever, a computer system utilises more than one CPU at a time to process then it
is known as a multiprocessing. On the other hand, Multitasking is the capability of an
operating system of executing more than 1 task concurrently on sole processor machine and
multiple tasks share mutual resources like CPU and memory (Stallings, 2012).
Solution 15
Time-sharing operating systems is a technique through which many people resided at
many terminals can use a particular computer system instantaneously. A multi-user
processing system enables multiple users for accessing the data as well as processes of single
machine through various computers as well as terminals. In addition, multi-user processing
systems are often utilised in businesses as well as offices where many users require accessing
the similar resources (Stallings, 2012).
Solution 16
The major difference amid Hard and Soft Real-Time Systems is that a Hard Real-
Time system assures that all critical tasks are completed on time. Whereas soft real-
time systems can skip few deadlines, but gradually overall performance will worsen when too
many deadlines are missed. For an example, the sound system in computer systems is soft
real-time system (Stallings, 2012).
References
Agarwal, S. (2012, 05 05). GT Explains: What is the Difference Between NTFS and FAT 32
File Systems. Retrieved from Guiding Tech:
https://www.guidingtech.com/11205/difference-between-ntfs-and-fat-32-file-systems/
ARM Developer. (2018). What is the difference between a von Neumann architecture and a
Harvard architecture? Retrieved from Infocenter:
http://infocenter.arm.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.arm.doc.faqs/ka3839.html
Le, J. (2018, 01 08). How Operating Systems Work: 10 Concepts you Should Know as a
Developer. Retrieved from A Medium Corporation: https://medium.com/cracking-the-

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data-science-interview/how-operating-systems-work-10-concepts-you-should-know-
as-a-developer-8d63bb38331f
Mercer, C. (2018, 02 12). How to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 10. Retrieved from
Computer World UK: https://www.computerworlduk.com/tutorial/applications/how-
upgrade-from-windows-xp-windows-10-3625768/
Nelson, T. (2018, 09 21). Manually Install a Printer on Your Mac. Retrieved from Life Wire:
https://www.lifewire.com/manually-install-printer-on-mac-2260791
Schofield, J. (2016, 06 16). Should I buy a PC or Mac for working from home? Retrieved
from The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2016/jun/16/should-i-buy-a-pc-or-
mac-for-working-from-home
Shah, R. (2018). Device drivers: Installation and configuration. Retrieved from Tech Target:
https://searchenterprisedesktop.techtarget.com/tip/Device-drivers-Installation-and-
configuration
Stake Exchange. (2018). CPU Cache is managed by which software component? Retrieved
from Stake Exchange: https://cs.stackexchange.com/questions/10043/cpu-cache-is-
managed-by-which-software-component
Stallings, W. (2012). Operating systems: internals and design principles. Boston: Prentice
Hall.
Timmwatts. (2015, 11 13). How many concurrent users can connect to windows 10 share.
Retrieved from Spiceworks: https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1290129-how-
many-concurrent-users-can-connect-to-windows-10-share
Zeltser Security Corporation. (2018). Using Free Windows XP Mode as a VMware Virtual
Machine. Retrieved from Zeltser Security Corporation: https://zeltser.com/windows-
xp-mode-for-vmware-virtualization/