Analysis of Windows Operating System and Microsoft

Analysis of Windows Operating System and Microsoft What is Windows? Windows is a personal computer operating system from Microsoft that, together with some commonly used business applications such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and Excel, has become a de facto â€Å"standard† for individual users in most corporations as well as in most homes. It provides a graphical user interface (GUI), virtual memory management, multitasking, and support for many peripheral devices. According to OneStat.com, as of August, 2006, Windows as a whole dominates the personal computer world, running on about 97% of the operating system market share, with XP accounting for about 87% of that. In comparison Mac OS has about 2% and Linux (with all distributions) about .36% The reason why this is so is mainly because Windows is much more user friendly and everything comes pre-packaged so user just have to run the application and follow instructions for it to install. There are many versions of Windows Operating System available namely: Windows 286 W indows 386 Windows 3.0 and 3.11 Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows NT Windows 2000 Windows CE for use in small mobile computers Windows Me Windows XP Windows Vista Windows 7 Among all those versions, Windows XP is the most popular one and it is used by 61.9 percent of Internet users, according to data from Net Applications, followed by Windows 7 which has 14.46 percent of users and Vista -14.34 percent. A Brief Story On Windows Windows mainly concentrated on providing an operating system which was user-friendly, stable and less prone to crashes when they were implementing earlier versions. Now, even though XP is generally referred to being stable and efficient compared to other copies of Windows, it is still critised for being overly susceptible to security risks. Therefore the successor of XP- Vista, released in January of 2007 was designed in such a way so as it provides more security. The transition time between Vista and XP is the longest one between versions of windows. Vulnerabilities Of Windows What is vulnerability? – â€Å"It is a weakness that makes a threat possible. â€Å" These vulnerabilities are used by attackers who exploits them to convey multiple attack, including enticing the users to open harmful and malicious media or to visit website which has a lot of viruses. These can have a lot of consequences. In the worst case, a hacker or attacker can get full access to the computer. Fortunately, windows provide a lot of solution to these vulnerabilities. The user just has to install the appropriate Microsoft patches or they are sometimes installed automatically with the help of Windows Update. Window Update Vulnerabilities can be compared to holes. They are like holes in the system. Windows periodically releases security patches mostly as Window Updates to fix those defects. There exists different level of security known as the â€Å"security level system† in Windows which describes the different levels of security holes: A critical security hole is â€Å"a vulnerability whose exploitation could allow the propagation of an Internet worm without user action.† An important hole is â€Å" A vulnerability whoses exploitation could result in compromise of the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of user’s data, or of the integrity or availability of processing recources.†