Operating Systems

The CompTIA A+ 2006 Essentials exam is updated to include Microsoft Windows 2000, XP Professional, XP Home, and Media Center. You are fortunate to not have to look back to DOS and Windows 95!

You will have to know some fundamentals for upgrading from Windows 95 and NT, but these topics are fairly easy to understand in the context of the potential questions on the exam.

Windows 2000 and XP represent a new more stable core for Microsoft Windows. Both Operating Systems feature wide device driver support, multimedia, and a much more secure and easy to use system.

In this section, you will learn the core functions of the OS, how people interact with it, how install, configure, and upgrade the OS, and troubleshooting techniques when problems arise. This section is 21% of the overall exam, so it is extremely important to understand the concepts presented in this section. We recommend installing Virtual PC on your computer and installing Windows 2000 and Windows XP to really play around with the features you are learning here without fear of breaking your primary computer. Virtual PC is free from Microsoft, but you must be licensed for any OS you install in it.

Additionally, we added a section on Windows Vista so you can understand the core differences between this Operating System and its predecessors. Many of the functions are the same, but Vista does have many new features which you will appreciate in your role as a support technician. Learnthat.com has a free Windows Vista Fundamentals course if you’re unfamiliar with the OS, this course will help you understand many of the new features. Currently Microsoft Windows Vista is not on the A+ 2006 Essentials exam, but that might change at any time.

Operating System Fundamentals

Differences Between Operating System Platforms

The gap between the three major Operating Systems (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux) has been narrowing over the past few years. Much of the user interface interaction is duplicated across the platforms and communication with and sharing documents between each OS has improved to the point that you can run all three in a networked environment with very few problems. This has resulted in a quite a few mixed environments where you will be expected to support any (and all!) of these operating systems.

Windows

As you already know, Microsoft Windows is the dominant Operating System in terms of market share. Currently, Windows holds a commanding lead of around 90% of the PC OS market.

Microsoft Windows has been around since the early 90s, but today’s OS barely resembles Windows 286 and Windows 3.0. There are several versions of Microsoft Windows you should be aware of:

Windows 3.11 for Workgroups: a networked version of Windows 3.0. This version of the OS was an overlay on top of DOS and was very limited in its features.

Windows 95/98: Still had a core of DOS underneath, but started moving into a much more user friendly OS. Windows 95/98 are often referred to as Windows 9x which can also include Windows ME.

Windows ME: Windows Millenium Edition was a stepping stone from the 95/98 OS to Windows 2000 and subsequently Windows XP. A problematic OS which was supposed to integrated new multimedia functionality. Anyone moving to this OS was promptly recommended to move off of it with all of the issues and problems it had.

Windows NT: Came in two “modern” versions: 3.51 and 4.0. Designed as a business operating system and lacked many of the features consumers came to enjoy such as “plug’n’play.” Added security in the form of users and groups, business networking features, and NTFS (New Technology File System). All of us who had to support Windows NT have a special place in our heart for this rigid OS – it was a great learning experience!