Last Updated: 8-17-96
The WWW Virtual School Operating System Homepage was designed to teach students of all different grade levels about operating systems. This page will have information on IBM and Macintosh operating systems in the form of a terminology list, and more. First, please select the platform (operating system) you would like to learn about:
E-Mail Comments & Suggestions To Joe Turgeon at:
jturgeon@isd.netGo Back To The WWW Virtual School Computer Homepage
The first version of MS-DOS (Disk Operating System) was developed by Microsoft in 1981 for distribution with IBM's new PC (Personal Computer.) MS-DOS has directories just as Macintosh Computers have folders.
| COMMAND.COM | COMMAND.COM is the command interpretor. A command interpretor is the program that decides what to do when you give it commands. |
Back To WWW Virtual School: Operating System Homepage
The first version of Windows was developed by Microsoft in 1989. Windows was the one of the first graphical operating systems. Windows incorporated the GUI (graphical user interface) and multi-tasking in its design.
A special version of Windows 3.11 was released by Microsoft in 1993. This special version called Windows for Workgroups incorporated networking features so that you could set up a network without buying the expensive Windows NT.
| DLL (Dynamic Link Library) | Non-Executable file that contains program code that all applications can access. |
| MAPI (Mail API) | Special commands that relate to Microsoft Mail. |
Back To WWW Virtual School: Operating System Homepage
Windows NT is a special version of Windows that incorporated Networking, and 32-Bit Processing in its design. Although Windows is advertised as a multi-tasker, Windows NT was the first version of Windows with full multi-tasking. For more information on the Windows (NT) environment look at the Windows article.
Back To WWW Virtual School: Operating System Homepage
Windows 95 was released by Microsoft in 1995. Windows 95 incorporates many new features not included in Windows including:
| TAPI (Telephone API) | Special built-in commands that relate to communications with another computer over telephone (modem). |
Back To WWW Virtual School: Operating System Homepage
System is the main Macintosh Operating System. The first version of System was developed in 1983 by Apple Computers. System incorporates multi-tasking, ease of use, and the desktop idea in its design.
Back To WWW Virtual School: Operating System Homepage
For the benefit and learning for everybody we challenge you to e-mail us a question or terminology about computers. We will try to answer it and then put your question and answer on our page.
Please E-Mail all computer questions to:
jturgeon@isd.netBack To WWW Virtual School: Operating System Homepage