Computer Operating System Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Correct answer: primary storage

The parts of the operating system that must respond at any moment - the interrupt handlers, the scheduler, the memory manager - have to be in primary storage the whole time the machine is running, since the processor can only execute what is in memory. Less-used routines may be left on disk and fetched when needed.

Answer: C

Correct answer: RESTORE

Files written by the DOS BACKUP command are held in a special packed form, so an ordinary COPY cannot retrieve them; only the matching RESTORE command can unpack them back to the disk.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Windows 2000

Windows 2000 is the only one of these with a server edition, bringing Active Directory, domain logon, and centrally administered file, print and application services. Windows 95 and 98 support peer-to-peer sharing but have no domain controller and no central security database, and MS-DOS has no networking of its own at all.

Answer: C

Correct answer: FORMAT A: /S

FORMAT A: /S formats the diskette and then copies the system files onto it, so the disk is left bootable in a single command. SYS A: transfers the system files but only to a disk that is already formatted.

Answer: B

Correct answer: connecting a number of devices to a controller

A daisy chain runs the control signal from the controller through each device in turn, so many devices share one set of lines. Priority follows the order in the chain, since the nearest device sees the grant signal first and may take it.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Assembler or translator

The assembler (or compiler) is what knows which fields of the generated code hold addresses, because it generated them, so it emits the relocation bits alongside the object code. The relocating loader then reads those bits and adds the load address to exactly those fields.

Answer: A

Correct answer: is usually the primary user interface

The command interpreter - the shell - is what the user actually talks to: it reads each command, finds the program that implements it, and runs it. It accepts free-format lines rather than fixed ones, and is a program like any other, which is why a system can offer several.

Answer: D

Correct answer: should be chosen to match the data characteristics

Record length is a design decision, not a rule: fixed-length records are simpler and allow a record’s position to be computed directly, while variable-length records waste no space when the data itself varies greatly in size. The right choice follows from what the data looks like.

Answer: B

Correct answer: DBLSPACE

DBLSPACE is DOS 6’s disk compression: it can compress an existing drive in place or create a new compressed volume, storing the data in a hidden compressed volume file that a driver presents as an ordinary drive letter. DEFRAG only rearranges files and SCANDISK only checks them.

Answer: A

Correct answer: JCL

Special forms, and the printer they are to be mounted on, are described to the operating system in the job’s job control language statements - the DD statement naming the form number, so the operator is prompted to mount it before the job prints.