You get to work and turn on your computer. You open up Microsoft Outlook to check your calendar and your email; Internet Explorer to access your company’s website; QuickBooks or other accounting software to manage your accounts; and Microsoft Word to finish the letter you started drafting yesterday. Did you know you are taking advantage of the underlying features of your operating system!?

Every computer, from the smallest notebook to the largest supercomputer, has an operating system (OS). The OS is critical; a computer cannot run without it. The operating system is the traffic cop of your PC, conducting the flow of “traffic” or data through the computer system by coordinating the hardware, software, processor, user interface, and the system’s memory.