Computer Operating System Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Correct answer: priority is programmable

In a daisy chain the grant signal passes from one device to the next, so priority is fixed by the physical order of the devices in the chain and cannot be changed by program. Its genuine characteristics are the other three: devices are easy to add, one failure can break the chain for those beyond it, and the number of control lines does not grow with the number of devices.

Answer: A

Correct answer: FORMAT/F : size

The /F:size switch tells FORMAT which capacity to format the diskette to - /F:720 or /F:1.44, for example - which is how a lower-capacity disk is formatted in a high-density drive.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Processor

A processor is any hardware device that executes a sequence of instructions - the CPU is one, but so are the graphics and input/output processors in the same machine. The ALU and the control unit are components inside a processor rather than processors in their own right.

Answer: B

Correct answer: F5

Pressing F5 as DOS starts skips CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT entirely, giving a bare system - the standard way of getting in when a driver or a startup line is preventing the machine from booting. F8 instead confirms each line one at a time.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Debugger

Utilities are the housekeeping programs that keep the system running - a spooler queuing output for the printer, an editor preparing text. A debugger belongs instead to the program development tools: it exists to find faults in a program being written, not to service the system.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Operation code

A machine instruction has two parts: the operation code, which tells the processor what to do - add, load, branch - and the address field, which says what to do it to. The control unit decodes the opcode and issues the signals that carry it out.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Compiler

A compiler reads a high-level program and produces the machine instructions that carry it out, checking the source against the grammar of the language as it goes. A debugger helps find faults in a program that already runs, and an editor only creates the source text.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Windows 2000

Windows 2000 Server is the one built for the role: it carries Active Directory, domain authentication, DNS and DHCP services, and centrally managed file and print sharing. MS-DOS and the Windows 9x line offer only peer-to-peer sharing, with no domain and no central account database.

Answer: B

Correct answer: used in all major commercial operating systems

Virtual memory is universal in serious operating systems, because it lets a program exceed physical memory, isolates each process in its own address space, and allows memory to be over-committed safely. It is not simple - it needs address-translation hardware - and it uses memory more efficiently, not less.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Video controller

A DOS upgrade touches the system files, the disk structures and the drivers, so the ROM BIOS, compressed drives and old backups can all cause trouble. The video controller is driven through the BIOS and is indifferent to which version of DOS is running, so it is the least likely to interfere.