Anno Accademico 2011/12Corso di Laurea Triennale in MatematicaCorso di Informatica

WINDOWS

1984 – Microsoft annuncia lo sviluppo di un’interfaccia grafica per MS-DOS

1985 – Viene lanciato sul mercato Windows 1.0• Funzioni limitate • Finestre non sovrapponibili

1987 – Viene rilasciato il nuovo sistema Windows 2.0• Nuovo motore grafico• Introduzione di Microsoft Word ed Excel• Ultima versione installabile su floppy disk e senza supporto di hard disk

1990 – Il successo di Windows 3.0• Introduzione della memoria virtuale• Primo kit multimediale con scheda sonora e CD-ROM

1992 – Windows 3.1 • Introduzione dei font

1992 – Nascita del progetto Windows NT(New Technology)• Supporto per server LAN• File System tipo NTFS (New Technology File System)• API a 32 bit

1995 – Windows 95• File System tipo FAT 32• Introduzione del Menu Start• Introduzione di Internet Explorer, Paint e Media Player

1998 – Windows 98• Supporto per schede grafiche AGP• Interfaccia molto user-friendly

2000 – Lancio di Windows ME (4.x)• Introduzione dello stack TCP/IP• Supporto per USB

2001 – Windows XP• Windows NT + Windows 9.x• Nuova interfaccia grafica• Supporto per SATA• Maggiore stabilità• Versione a 64 bit

2006 – Windows VISTA• Introduzione di Windows Aero• Nuove API

2009 – Windows 7• Nuova Taskbar• Riconoscimento vocale• Riconoscimento della scrittura• Supporto per Tablet PC (HP Touch Smart)• Supporto per Dischi a stato solido• Introduzione alle VPN• Versione a 64bit stabile

2012? – Windows 8• Nuova interfaccia grafica• Windows Store• Active Directory• Nuova versione Task Manager

The Control Panel is a part of the Microsoft Windows graphical userinterface which allows users to view and manipulate basic system settings andcontrols via applets, such as adding hardware, adding and removing software,controlling user accounts, and changing accessibility options. Additionalapplets can be provided by third party software.

The Control Panel has been an inherent part of the Microsoft Windowsoperating system since its first release (Windows 2.0), with many of the currentapplets being added in later versions. Beginning with Windows 95, the ControlPanel is implemented as a special folder, i.e. the folder does not physicallyexist, but only contains shortcuts to various applets such as Add or RemovePrograms and Internet Options. Physically, these applets are stored as .cpl files.For example, the Add or Remove Programs applet is stored under thename appwiz.cpl in the SYSTEM32 folder or now in the SYSTEM folder in 64bitversions.

This section allow to userto add, change or unistallprograms from itscomputer.

It’s very importantbecause when you wantto unistall a program itrecognize all the files anddependicies need to runthat sofware.

It also provide to add or remove features to the Windows kernel, like IIS (InternetInformation Services ) and also you can control the last Updates from WindowsUpadate Service

In this section we have a list of all devices connected to our computer. It’s very usefulwhen our PC doesn’t recognize a new device recently plugged. This section is agraphical implementation of Plug & Play System that is different from the networksservices called UPnP (Universal Plug & Play).

The Plug & Play System was released in 1995 with the launch of Windows 95.

Before, this linking was usually done by connecting some wires between modulesand disconnecting others. For manymechanical data processing machines, such asthe IBM punched card accounting machines, their calculating operations weredirected by the use of a quick-swap control panel wired to route signals betweenmodule sockets.

As computers became more accessible to the general public, the configuration wasaccomplished by jumpers or DIP switches.

However, the process of configuring devices manually using jumpers or DIPswitches could be quite difficult, and there was usually no forgiveness for technicalinexperience. Incorrect settings could render either the whole system or just theexpansion device completely or partially inoperable. Some settings such asfor interrupts (IRQ) or direct memory access (DMA) required knowledge of whatconfiguration had been previously manually assigned to other devices, as well aswhat settings the main system itself may be using. The system might still seem towork properly with an incorrect setting, until the IRQ or DMA is actually neededand the entire system suddenly freezes and must be reset.

In 1995 Microsoft released Windows 95, which triedto fully automate device detection andconfiguration as much as possible, but could still fallback to manual settings if necessary. During theinitial install process of Windows 95 it wouldattempt to automatically detect all devicesinstalled in the system. In the event that deviceprobing would fail and the system would freeze,the end-user could reboot the computer, restart thedetection process, and the installer would use thetracking log to skip past the point that caused theprevious freeze.

Up until about 2000, PC computers could still be purchased with a mix of ISA and PCIslots, so it was still possible that manual ISA device configuration might benecessary. But with successive releases of new operating systems like Windows 2000and Windows XP, Microsoft had sufficient clout to say that drivers would not beprovided for older devices that did not support auto-detection. In some cases theuser was forced to purchase new expansion devices or a whole new system tosupport the next operating system release.

Current plug and play interfaces:USB, Firewire, PCI, PCI-Express, PCMCIA

The Devices Administration section ofthe Control Panel, is the list of all thecard, memories and devices inside andoutside of ypur computer.

In this section we can manage all thedevices of our PC, and also we can seeif one of these have a problem with thekernel.

A device driver simplifies programming by acting as translatorbetween a hardware device and the applications or operatingsystems that use it. Programmers can write the higher-levelapplication code independently of whatever specific hardwaredevice.

Microsoft has attempted to reduce system instability due topoorly written device drivers by creating a new framework fordriver development, called Windows Driver Foundation (WDF).This includes User-Mode Driver Framework (UMDF) andthe Kernel-Mode Driver Framework (KMDF).

NTFS (New Technology File System) is the standard file system of Windows NT,including its later versions Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

NTFS supersedes the FAT file system as the preferred file system forMicrosoft’s Windows operating systems. NTFS has several improvements over FATand HPFS (High Performance File System) such as improved supportfor metadata and the use of advanced data structures to improve performance,reliability, and disk space utilization, plus additional extensions such assecurity access control lists (ACL) and file system journaling.

NTFS LogNTFS is a Journaling file system and uses the NTFS Log ($LogFile) to recordmetadata changes to the volume.It is a critical functionality of NTFS (a feature that FAT/FAT32 does not provide) forensuring that its internal complex data structures, and indices (for directoriesand security descriptors) will remain consistent in case of system crashes, and alloweasy rollback of uncommitted changes to these critical data structures when thevolume is remounted.

Encrypting File System (EFS)

EFS provides strong[30] and user-transparent encryption of any file or folder on an NTFSvolume. EFS works in conjunction with the EFS service, Microsoft's CryptoAPI and theEFS File System Run-Time Library (FSRTL). EFS works by encrypting a file with abulk symmetric key (also known as the File Encryption Key, or FEK), which is usedbecause it takes a relatively small amount of time to encrypt and decrypt largeamounts of data than if an asymmetric key cipher is used. The symmetric key that isused to encrypt the file is then encrypted with a public key that is associated with theuser who encrypted the file, and this encrypted data is stored in an alternate datastream of the encrypted file. To decrypt the file, the file system uses the private key ofthe user to decrypt the symmetric key that is stored in the file header. It then uses thesymmetric key to decrypt the file.

The support of EFS is not available in Basic, Home and MediaCenter versions ofWindows, and must be activated after installation of Professional, Ultimate and Serverversions of Windows or by using enterprise deployment tools within Windowsdomains.

Quotas

Disk quotas were introduced in NTFS v3. They allow the administrator of a computerthat runs a version of Windows that supports NTFS to set a threshold of disk spacethat users may use. It also allows administrators to keep track of how much disk spaceeach user is using. An administrator may specify a certain level of disk space that auser may use before they receive a warning, and then deny access to the user oncethey hit their upper limit of space. Disk quotas do not take into account NTFS'stransparent file-compression, should this be enabled. Applications that query theamount of free space will also see the amount of free space left to the user who has aquota applied to them.

The support of disk quotas is not available in Basic, Home and MediaCenter versionsof Windows, and must be activated after installation of Professional, Ultimate andServer versions of Windows or by using enterprise deployment tools within Windowsdomains.

NTFS5 NTFS exFAT FAT32 FAT16 FAT12OperatingSystem

Windows 2000Windows XP

Windows 2003 Server

Windows 2008Windows Vista

Windows 7

Windows NTWindows 2000

Windows XPWindows 2003

ServerWindows

2008Windows Vista

Windows 7

Windows CE 6.0Windows Vista

SP1Windows 7

WinXP+KB955704

DOS v7 and higher

Windows 98Windows ME

Windows 2000Windows XP

Windows 2003 Server

Windows VistaWindows 7

DOSAll versions of

Microsoft Windows

DOSAll versions of

Microsoft Windows

LimitationsMax Volume Size

264

clustersminus 1 cluster

232

clusters minus 1 cluster

128PB 32GB for all OS.2TB for some OS

2GB for all OS.4GB for some OS

16MB

Max Files on Volume

4,294,967,295 (2

32-1)

4,294,967,295 (2

32-1)

Nearly Unlimited 4194304 65536

Max File Size 264

bytes (16 ExaBytes)minus 1KB

244

bytes (16 TeraBytes)

minus 64KB

16EB 4GB minus 2 Bytes

2GB (Limit Onlyby Volume Size)

16MB (Limit Only

by Volume Size)

Max Clusters Number

264

clusters minus 1 cluster

232

clusters minus 1 cluster

4294967295 4177918 65520 4080

Max File NameLength

Up to 255 Up to 255 Up to 255 Up to 255 Standard - 8.3Extended - up to

255

Up to 254

File System FeaturesUnicode File Names

UnicodeCharacter Set

UnicodeCharacter Set

UnicodeCharacter Set

SystemCharacter Set

SystemCharacter Set

SystemCharacter Set

System Records Mirror

MFT Mirror File MFT Mirror File No Second Copy of FAT

Second Copy of FAT

Second Copy of FAT

Boot Sector Location

First and Last Sectors

First and Last Sectors

Sectors 0 to 11Copy in 12 to 23

First Sector andCopy in Sector #6

First Sector First Sector

File Attributes Standard and Custom

Standard and Custom

Standard Set Standard Set Standard Set Standard Set

Alternate Streams Yes Yes No No No No

Compression Yes Yes No No No NoEncryption Yes No No No No NoObject Permissions

Yes Yes Yes No No No

Disk Quotas Yes No No No No NoSparse Files Yes No No No No NoReparse Points Yes No No No No NoVolume Mount Points

Yes No No No No No

Overall PerformanceBuilt-In Security Yes Yes Yes

minimal ACL onlyNo No No

Recoverability Yes Yes Yesif TFAT activated

No No No

Performance Low on small volumes

High on Large

Low on small volumes

High on Large

High High on small volumes

Low on large

Highest on small volumes

Low on large

High

Internet Explorer

The Internet Explorer project was started in the summer of 1994 by ThomasReardon, using source code from Spyglass, Inc. Mosaic, an early commercial webbrowser with formal ties to the pioneering NCSA Mosaic browser.

Standards support

• supports HTML 4.01, CSS Level1, XML 1.0, and DOM Level 1, withminor implementation gaps.

• supports XHTML in Internet Explorer 9

• Internet Explorer uses DOCTYPE sniffing .

Internet Explorer had been subjected to criticism by W3C over its limited supportfor SVG promoted by W3C.

Paint

Paint (formerly Paintbrush for Windows) is a simple graphics painting program thathas been included with all versions of Microsoft Windows. It is often referred to as MSPaint or Microsoft Paint. The program opens and saves files as Windows bitmap (24-bit, 256 color, 16 color, and monochrome, all withthe .bmp extension), JPEG, GIF (without animation or transparency, althoughthe Windows 98 version, a Windows 95upgrade, and the Windows NT4 version didsupport the latter), PNG (without alpha channel), and TIFF (without multiple pagesupport).

WordPad

WordPad is a basic word processor that is included with almost all versionsof Microsoft Windows from Windows 95 upwards. It is more advancedthan Notepad but simpler than Microsoft Works Word Processor and Microsoft Word.It replaced Microsoft Write.

Microsoft Office is a commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications,servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems,introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989.

Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of Officecontained Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint.

Over the years, Office applications have grown substantially closer with sharedfeatures such as a common spell checker, OLE data integration and Microsoft VisualBasic for Applications scripting language. Microsoft also positions Office as adevelopment platform for line-of-business software under the Office BusinessApplications brand

Windows PowerShell is Microsoft's task automation framework, consisting ofa command-line shell and associated scripting language built on top of, and integratedwith the .NET Framework. PowerShell provides full access to COM and WMI, enablingadministrators to perform administrative tasks on both local and remote Windowssystems.

In PowerShell, administrative tasks are generally performedby cmdlets (pronounced command-lets), specialized .NET classes implementing aparticular operation. Sets of cmdlets may be combined togetherin scripts, executables (which are standalone applications), or by instantiating regular.NET classes (or WMI/COM Objects).[3][4] These work by accessing data in different datastores, like the filesystem or registry, which are made available to the PowerShellruntime via Windows PowerShell providers.

Windows PowerShell(Cmdlet)

Windows PowerShell(Alias)

cmd.exe / COMMAND.COM

(MS-DOS, Windows, OS/2, etc.)

Bash(Unix, BSD, Linux, Mac OS

X etc.)Description

Get-ChildItem gci, dir, ls dir lsList all files / directories in the (current) directory

Get-Content gc, type, cat type cat Get the content of a fileGet-Command gcm help help List available commandsGet-Help help, man help man Help on commandsClear-Host cls, clear cls clear Clear the screen[Note 1]

Copy-Item cpi, copy, cp copy cpCopy one or several files / a whole directory tree

Move-Item mi, move, mv move mvMove a file / a directory to a new location

Remove-Item ri, del, erase, rmdir, rd, rm del, erase, rmdir, rd rm, rmdir Delete a file / a directory

Rename-Item rni, ren, mv ren, rename mvRename a file / a directory

Get-Location gl, pwd cd pwdDisplay the current directory/present working directory.

Pop-Location popd popd popd

Change the current directory to the directory most recently pushed onto the stack

Push-Location pushd pushd pushdPush the current directory onto the stack

Set-Location sl, cd, chdir cd, chdir cdChange the currentdirectory

Windows PowerShell(Cmdlet)

Windows PowerShell(Alias)

cmd.exe / COMMAND.COM

(MS-DOS, Windows, OS/2, etc.)

Bash(Unix, BSD, Linux, Mac OS

X etc.)Description

Tee-Object tee n/a teePipe input to a file or variable, then pass the input along the pipeline

Write-Output echo, write echo echoPrint strings, variables etc. to standard output

Get-Process gps, ps tlist,[Note 2] tasklist[Note 3] psList all currently running processes

Stop-Process spps, kill kill,[Note 2] taskkill[Note 3] kill[Note 4] Stop a running process

Select-String n/a find, findstr grepPrint lines matching a pattern

Set-Variable sv, set set env, export, set, setenvSet the value of a variable / create a variable