A program is a set of instructions that tells a computer what to do. The set of programs installed on a computer is its software.

The term hardware was used long before computers even existed to talk about tools, as found in hardware stores. In contrast, the term software came into use with the advent of computers, to refer to computer programs and the ease with which they can be modified.
The BIOS is the first process to run when a PC is turned on. Its function is to check the components needed to load the operating system in the memory. It is a nonvolatile memory

located on the motherboard.

Operating system This is the second process executed on a PC. It runs automatically the every time the computer is switched on. It is a set of programs that directly controls the computer hardware. It is a set of programs designed to manage the computer hardware directly; that is, both the computer kernel and the peripherals.

Main menu: The main menu provides access to the applications installed on the computer. Depending on the operating system, the main menu can be divided into two or more different menus. Taskbar buttons: they are displayed when there are apps running. Quick launch menu: It gives direct access to user apps. Show desktop icon: It minimizes all windows currently open and shows the desktop. The system tray: This is a special area of the desktop where users can access the programs running and see if there have been recent changes. The workspace switcher: This gives the user the ability to switch between multiple workspaces. Desktop: Icons: These are small pictures associated to running programs, opening documents, or accessing folders. There are different types: Apps icons (they are exclusive to the apps they represent), document icons (they are usually the same icon as the app that is used to edit them, folder icons (they are usually the same), link icons (they look differently depending on what they link to). File browser: is the desktop environment program used to manage files and folders. It allows users to copy, delete, rename, or open programs. Ubuntus file browser: Ubuntu Windows file browser: Windows explorer. Elements: Title bar: It contains the name of the folder that is open. Minimize button: It collapses the explorer window into the taskbar, but the app keeps running. Maximize button: It expands the window to its maximum size. Restore button: This button reduces the size of the window. Address bar: It shows the location of the folder according to the directory hierarchy. Tabs: The browsers working area can show the contents of different folders Status bar: it shows the info. About the browser, or the files and folders selected.

Desktop environment This process is executed in third place and it also keeps running until the computer is switched off. It is a set of programs that provides the computer a graphic interface of windows, icons, and menus. We can interact with these using a pointing device. Elements of the graphical user interface:

Side panel: it shows various types of info that can be configured by the user. Working area: It shows the files and folders contained in the open folder. Scrollbar: It allows us to view areas of the document that arent accessible on the monitor. Window edges: These allows us to change the size of the window.

Disk partitions: The most commonly found disk type has only one division.
Nevertheless, the presence of more than one partition on the disk has some advantages: A logical separation between the programs of the operating system and the users data. It prevents the loss of documents if the operating system is corrupted or damaged. The use of various operating systems in the same personal computer. This allows users to have more than one operating system installed on their computer. In this case, each operating system is installed on a different partition.

File systems: Before a partition is used, it must be formatted. In this process, all data contained on the disk is deleted and an empty file system is set up. There are several types of file systems: FAT16 and FAT32: They were used by windows until quite recently. These two file systems are obsolete due to several of its limitations, one of them is that the maximum file size is 4GB. NTFS: This is currently used by windows. Most modern OS support this file system. EXT4: This is currently used by Linux. It is open-source. It is not compatible with Microsoft. The structure of directories The files saved on a nonvolatile storage unit are stored in folders or directories. Folders make it possible to classify files, separating them if necessary. This type of organization is called nested hierarchy. User folders Operating systems allow the computer to be personalized for the use of more than one user. The personal files of each user are stored in automatically created folders called user folders.Ubuntu: Home, Windows: My Ducuments. The address bar When using the file browser, it is sometimes useful to know where we are in the directory tree. The address bar gives up this information, and also allows us to manually write the path or position in the tree we want to locate. C: The letter which usually indicates the partition on which the operating system is installed. Documents and Settings: Directory with data about user accounts. Administrator: Directory containing the Administrators. My Documents: Windows Explorer deals with some folders in a special way. When we access the folder My Documents or Desktop icon via a shortcut icon, the whole address is not shown in the address bar. View options The file browser can display the content of a folder in several ways, depending on the option selected in the View menu. Some of these options are Icon view, List view, and Detailed view. The names can vary from one operating system to another. Basic features of the file browse: Copy (Ctrl + C), cut (todos los de parenthesis son commandos con teclas), paste(), create(depends on the file browser), delete (supr), rename (F2), open document, folder(enter), do one level up ((Alt + h Nautilus); (Backspace windows)).

File and directory properties: This consists of two parts separated by a dot: the base name and the extension. Two files located in the same folder must have different names. Folder names have no extension. The Windows operating system determines which application will open a file according to its extension. Changing the extension may cause a file not to work as the system may try to open it with an unsuitable application. For security reasons, it is necessary to know the Windows filename extensions. Users should never open an exe file if they dont know or trust its source, because Windows will execute the application and it may put the integrity of our files - as well as our privacy - at risk. They are often found in downloaded applications or attached to e-mails from unknown senders. Type The browser working area displays objects belonging to one of the following categories: Folder File Executable application or file (exe) Executable application or file (exe) Shortcut file (lnk) Permissions These determine what a user can or cannot do with a file: Read-only Users can open the file, view its content, and copy it to a new file. However, they cant edit, modify, rename, or delete it. Read-and-write Users can modify the file at will. System tools Every desktop environment provides the user with a set of tools with which to administer the computer. All the tools mentioned in this section are installed by default in Windows and Ubuntu. They are tools that are used to: Customize user folders. Manage the Recycle Bin. Monitor the system. Defragment drives. Install software. Uninstall software. Update software. It is possible to install other tools, known as utilities, which are not installed by default with the operating system, and are often not created by the same developers. User accounts User accounts consist of: Username This is a name used to access a computer system. Each account must have a different username. It is public information. Password This is a secret word used for authentication. Each password is associated with a username. Data storage space This is a part of the hard disk where users can store their personal

documents. Access to this space is restricted. When users access their accounts, a session is started. A single computer, with a suitable operating system, can have more than one session active at the same time, although only one can be used in local access mode. It is thanks to remote access, some computers, such as servers, allow various users to be active at the same time. The Recycle Bin The Recycle Bin is a special folder on the desktop where the browser places deleted files. If we double-click on the Recycle Bin icon, the file browser displays its contents. The files in the Recycle Bin can still be restored. This means we can recover files if we delete them by mistake. Emptying the Recycle Bin The files in the Recycle Bin take up space in the storage device. Emptying the Recycle Bin frees up space but permanently deletes the items. Restoring files Files can be restored from the Recycle Bin; in other words, moved back to their previous location. In order to do this, we select the files and click on the option Restore in the drop-down menu. The System Monitor The System Monitor is a tool that allows the user to know the status of the computer at any given time. Ubuntu The Ubuntu System Monitor can be accessed via the drop-down System menu of the desktop taskbar, by clicking on Administration and System Monitor. Windows The Windows System Monitor is referred to as Windows Task Manager. It can be accessed by typing <Ctrl+Alt+Supr>.. Disk properties This all partitions present in the system as well as the available and occupied space in each of them. In Windows one cant have access to this information through the Windows task manager. The Disk Defragmenter Files stored in the hard disk are divided into various fragments. These are placed on the physical surface of the hard disk and arent necessarily contiguous. File fragmentation increases with disk usage. In other words, the more we use the computer, the slower it gets. Disk defragmentation reorganizes the file fragments. To do this, the defragmenter carries out various readandwrite operations on them. The objective is to copy them to contiguous locations within the disk, so that all the fragments of each file are together. The disk defragmenter is only found in Windows. Other operating systems use allocation algorithms that do not need to be defragmented on a regular basis. Defragmentation is a slow process. It is better to run it when we dont need to work on the computer, and with all the applications closed.