Computer Operating System Questions and Answers

Answer: D

Correct answer: Upward compatibility

Upward compatibility means a later version still runs what was written for the earlier ones, so users can move to the new system without abandoning their existing programs. It constrains the designers, but without it few would upgrade.

Answer: C

Correct answer: MODE MONO

MODE MONO switches output to the monochrome adapter. The related settings are CO40 and CO80 for colour and BW40 and BW80 for a colour adapter driving a monochrome display.

Answer: B

Correct answer: a system software

A translator - a compiler, assembler or interpreter - serves the machine and the programming process rather than an end user’s task, which is what makes it system software. Application software is what the user runs to do the job they actually came for.

Answer: D

Correct answer: MS DOS

MS-DOS is single-tasking: it runs one program at a time and offers no scheduler, which is why background behaviour had to be faked with terminate-and-stay-resident tricks. Windows 98, NT and XP all schedule several processes genuinely concurrently.

Answer: B

Correct answer: ATDT1234567

Modems obey the Hayes command set: AT gets the modem’s attention, D means dial and T selects tone dialling, so ATDT1234567 dials that number. ATDP would dial it with pulses.

Answer: C

Correct answer: /status

FDISK /STATUS displays the partition table of the hard disk and exits, without entering the interactive menu where partitions can be created or deleted - a safe way to look at the layout.

Answer: D

Correct answer: multitasking

Running more than one program at a time requires the system software to be capable of multitasking: it must hold several programs in memory, keep each one’s state, and switch the processor between them fast enough that all appear to advance together.

Answer: C

Correct answer: A collection of software routines

An operating system is software: a body of routines that manage the processor, memory, files and devices, and present them to programs through system calls. It runs on the hardware and controls the input and output devices, but is neither of them.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Scan

The SCAN algorithm, often called the elevator algorithm, sweeps the arm steadily from one end of the disk to the other and back, serving every request it passes on the way. It avoids the starvation of far-out requests that shortest-seek-time-first can cause, while still moving far less than first-come-first-served.

Answer: A

Correct answer: COPY a: *.TXT

With the source given as A:*.TXT and no destination, COPY writes to the current drive and directory, keeping each file’s name - which is exactly what the question asks for.