The Windows Operating System

By Joshua Erdman
Digital Foundation, inc.

AKA the alternate Mac OS. Here's a little history: Windows originally came through Microsoft's contract with Apple. Microsoft had made several programs for the Apple computer (which helped make Apple so successful), this opened the door for Apple to contract Microsoft to make productivity software for the (secret) Mac OS while it was still under development. Microsoft took advantage of this situation, while they worked with the beta copies of the Mac OS, they created their own Graphical User Interface that would work with DOS, Windows 3.0, and it has grown from there. If you would like to know more about the history of Microsoft, Windows, Apple, and Macintosh I recommend the movie: Pirates of Silicon Valley. Not only is it very educational but also entertaining.

The Windows interface has come a long way, and even as a dedicated Windows user, it is becoming more and more like your average Mac Desktop, very clean and simple.

If you are going to use Windows as an end-user for word processing and the like you are in luck, it is pretty simple. However, if you are going to administrate a network you are in for a challenge. Administrating any network is challenging, but with a lot of knowledge and experience behind you the challenge becomes fun. With the correct reading materials and resources you will have all kinds of tools and neat ideas available to you to fix network problems and create all kinds of handy implementations to make each employee's job easier.

Here we will explore the Microsoft complexities of Active Directory & Domains, Unattended Installations, and eventually Network Load Balancing (NLB), user management, and my favorite, Group Policy.

Article last reviewed: 09/07/2004

Created by: Digital Foundation, inc.

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