About this interactive
The lesson splits software two ways. First, system software versus application software: system software keeps the computer operational, and application software helps you carry out a task — writing a letter, tracking data, playing a game. Then system software splits into three. An operating system is the environment everything else runs in; it boots early, applications reach the hardware through it, and it keeps programs consistent, which is why two different programs share the same Save As window. A driver is a separate set of instructions that tells the operating system how to talk to one specific piece of hardware, like a graphics card or a printer. A utility helps you manage the system — troubleshooting it, cleaning it up, keeping it running well. Every item here describes a real program and what it is doing, most of them straight from this module's videos. Read the description and ask what role the program plays, not what it is called. Two boundaries are worth slowing down for. The first is utility versus application: the video calls applications the end result — the game, the document, the movie — and utilities a means to an end that supports the computer. The second is utility versus driver: Device Manager and a manufacturer's update tool both deal with drivers all day, but they are tools you use to manage drivers, not the instructions the operating system uses to talk to the hardware. Every item carries a note explaining why it belongs where it does.
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