Systems software - OCRPeripherals, file management and user management

Peripherals are hardware devices connected to a computer, such as a monitor, printer, scanner or camera.

To operate a peripheral, the operating system uses a program called a device driver. Device drivers contain instructions on how to control a device. Each connected device has its own driver.

Using device drivers brings two advantages:

• any device can be used with the operating system, as long as a driver is available for it
• drivers can be updated, usually to give better performance or to remove a bug

File handling

File handling and file maintenance is one of the most important tasks of an operating system. The file handling software allows users to:

• create, modify and delete files and folders
• copy and duplicate files and folders
• move files and folders
• rename files and folders
• sort items into different orders, according to name, file type, date created and more
• search for particular files and folders
• restore deleted files
• set access rights to files such as read only or edit

User management

Operating systems also manage users. They allow:

• individual users to be created and deleted
• access levels to be given to users, such as administrator rights or standard user rights
• auditing (keeping a log) of files a user creates, accesses, edits and deletes