Networking basics - Part 16: Connecting to the Windows operating system network

Brien M. Posey

Recently, we received some emails from readers who wanted to know why most of the articles in this series focused on Windows. To be honest with each individual, there may be people who prefer Linux over Microsoft or some other operating system, but still wonder why Windows is so necessary. This is completely true, because the network connection has been studied and implemented right before Windows. So I want to introduce you to the role that Windows plays a role in networking.

One thing to tell you is that every operating system performs network connectivity in a simple way. Although this operating system may be more efficient than the other operating system, the end result is basically the same. Windows, Macintosh, Linux and UNIX can all communicate on the same Internet using the same protocols.

We chose to write about Windows because it is the most commonly used operating system in the world today, with the aim of serving the most readers.

What Windows did for the world

Now let's go into the efforts and successes that Windows brings to the technology world in general, and businesses in particular. The reason Windows becomes such an influential operating system is because it solves two major problems that the IT sector requires.

First, before creating Windows, computers were relatively difficult to use. Before Windows 3.x, most computers running a Microsoft operating system were MS-DOS. DOS is an abbreviated term for Disk Operating System.

The DOS operating system did indeed work quite well, but it still had too many shortcomings to a certain standard. This is a text-based operating system. That means that if you want to launch an application, you cannot click on an icon on the screen as the operating system is currently used, but what you have to do at this point is right Know the scripts needed to launch the application. If you want to know how much free disk space, you cannot use the right-click on the disk icon but use the CHKDSK or DIR command. This is really complicated for amateur users.

Most users did not like this. Because you want to use DOS even if it's just basic, you need to learn some commands. Many of these commands can seriously damage the data if you accidentally use the wrong command, and that is something no one wants.

Computer use has gradually become popular before Microsoft introduced a graphical operating system, so Windows has made it easier to manipulate computers.

The second thing that Windows has done is far more important than providing a component that allows drivers to separate completely from applications.

At the time of DOS, it was an application developed by experts to include device drivers as part of the application. For example, the best word processor on the market at the time was a product that no longer exists, its former name is PFS Write. One of the things that turned PFS Write into such a good product was that it supported many printers.

Please note that at this time there is no support for video and audio cards, .

The way that drivers depend on bad application results for both application developers and customers. It is also not beneficial for application developers, because they have to spend a lot of time writing an enormous amount of device drivers, which has increased the cost as well as the time to complete production products and offers for the market. Because the application can only support a certain hardware restriction set, the developer will not be able to fully support the hardware products the customer has.

The device drivers attached to the application also make it difficult for customers. Typically, older hardware will not be supported, often requiring customers to buy new hardware along with their new application. At that time the hardware perspective was also not regularly supported. Application developers have to create drivers that fit most users, so it is rare for an application to have drivers for the latest hardware. Usually new hardware is not compatible with previous hardware drivers, but then a few years of hardware angles have been changed.

When Microsoft created Windows, they created an environment in which any application could interact with any hardware. Ensure that applications still have minimal hardware requirements, but hardware and brand models are not as important as they used to be. For example, if you want to print this document, it will not need to know what type of printer you have as long as you have the driver installed on your computer.

Windows has built in many layers. Each Windows application generates a number of print jobs in the same way, regardless of what the application is, or the type of printer the print job is sending. The Windows operating system uses a specific print driver to translate the print job into a format that the printer can understand. The process is much more complicated, but here I just want to introduce the basic idea without going into the details in architecture.

The best part is that the applications from the device driver help many objects. Application developers are not burdened with writing device drivers, and customers can now freely use any hardware they want (as long as there are standards). minimum requirements for compatibility) without having to worry about whether it works with some application or not.

Conclude

As you know, Microsoft was able to design Windows in a way that allowed applications to separate device drivers. In the next part of this series, I will continue the discussion by showing you how this architecture supports networking.