In the last chapter we learned mostly about hardware and the parts of the computer. We introduced a lot of (maybe) new concepts and finished off with turning on and off the computer and charting what we had learned. In this chapter we are going to learn about software. Important definitions will be presented in boxes like this one:

Software Software is the instructions that a computer uses to do what you ask it to. There are two kinds of software: the Operating System (OS) and Applications Software.

Operating System Abbreviated OS, the Operating System is the piece of Software, which organizes and controls the computer. E.g. Window 98.

Applications Software Called programs, pieces of applications software do the specific things you want.

The Operating System runs the computer and the Applications Software. It makes sure that the Hardware and the Applications Software understand each other. This makes it the most important piece of software on the computer. The Operating System also comes with utilities. These are pieces of Applications Software that mostly deal with managing data. You can also buy Third Party utilities, which means a different company made them than made the Operating System.

Utilities Programs that manage, repair, and optimize data on a computer. A basic set comes with every OS.

You can get a basic description of what any control does by hovering your mouse over it. A little thing with text will pop up. This is called a tool-tip (or a ToolTip).
Besides these there are also menus. Menus all operate the same way as the
start-menu. Some of and look something like this:

These are called main-menus or simply menus. Other menus are opened by right-clicking (pushing the right mouse button over something). These are called popup-menus. In the last chapter, the small windows that came up when we started and shut down the computer we learned were called dialogue-boxes. These are boxes that come up to ask you for information.