Advantages and Disadvantages of Windows Operating System (2024)

Windows Operating System

Windows Operating System is a type of operating system based on Graphical User Interface (GUI). It is called a graphical user interface because it create an interface (communication screen) between user and machine by using graphical elements like icons, pictures, colors, etc.

The Windows operating system was developed by Microsoft Corporation, an American Multinational technology company founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Windows operating system is one of the most popular computer operating systems in the world. The primary reason behind its global popularity is its very user-friendly interface. Windows operating system also provides multitasking capabilities, virtual memory management, etc.

Till date, Microsoft has launched many versions of its Windows operating system. The most popular and extensively used version is Windows 7. After Windows 7, Microsoft has launched Windows 8, Windows 10, and the latest one is Windows 11.

Windows 8 operating system was not become popular as windows 7 because of new user interface, and absence of start button. Microsoft again introduced this start button in the next version of windows operating system that is windows 10. Also, in Windows 10 operating system, some new features such as Cortana (a quick search tool), etc. and more attractive user interface are introduced.

Finally, the latest version of windows operating system, i.e. Windows 11 has launched, in which Microsoft has tried to give a little touch of mobile operating system Android. However, there are several other versions of Windows operating system, but they are not in used at present. These version are Windows 1.0, Windows 2.0, Windows 3.0, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista.

Advantages of Windows Operating System

The important advantages of Windows Operating System are described below.

Unser Friendly Interface and Easy to Use

The user interface created by the Windows operating system on the computer screen is quite user friendly when compared to other operating systems such as Linux and MAC. Also, all versions of the windows operating system such as windows 7, windows 8, windows 10, and windows 11 have several things common that make users easy to switch from one version to another.

Windows operating systems are Graphical User Interface (GUI) based operating systems, hence anyone with basic knowledge of computer system can use the computer without facing any difficulty.

Compatible to All Hardware

As Windows operating system is the most extensively used computer operating system. It is used by over 95% of users globally. Thus, all the computer hardware manufacturers produce drivers for windows operating system.

Support Plug and Play Feature

In Windows operating system most hardware drivers are preinstalled which makes it to offer plug and play feature. Therefore, a computer system with windows operating system can detect the plug hardware device automatically to play and hence we do not need to install driver of the device manually.

Provide Software Development Support

For software developers, windows operating system environment is most convenient. This is because Linux users cannot create applications to run on windows operating system. Thus, it is a better choice to use windows operating system to develop applications. For this reason, programmers and software engineers use windows operating system to develop games, utilities, and other applications.

Have Both Desktop and Touch Screen Support

The interface of Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems are made to support both desktop devices and touch screen devices.

Disadvantages of Windows Operating System

The major disadvantages of windows operating system are described below.

Security Concerns

Windows operating system is relatively unsafe against security threats. Therefore, hackers can easily penetrate into the system by breaking its security layers. So, users of windows operating system are to be highly rely on anti-virus software to protect their data from malicious attacks.

For accessing service of these anti-virus software, one has to pay a subscription fee. Another major issue of windows operating system is that one has to update the operating system regularly to keep it up to date with security patches.

Paid Software

The application software run on windows operating system are paid. For example, we want to do graphic designing, we have purchase Photoshop or any other graphics software, for word processing we have to purchase MS-Word, and so on.

Expensive

To use Windows operating system on the computer, we have to purchase license from Microsoft, thus we cannot use windows operating system legally free. The cost of buying a copy of windows license is very high.

Other than the license fee, user must also pay for software subscription fee as most of the windows application software are paid.

Poor Technical Support

Windows customer support is very poor for most windows users. Windows support team provides technical support service only to some large organizations. Therefore, individual users have to look at some external resource and forums to resolve their technical problems.

High Performance System Requirement

As windows operating system is an excellent graphical user interface operating system. Hence, it requires a high performance system to run. To install windows operating system, the computer system must have large RAM capacity, powerful CPU, large capacity storage disk, good graphics card, etc.

Need of System Rebooting

In windows operating system based computer systems, when we load several applications and programs simultaneously, the system starts to slow down and may hang up. In such situations, we need to reboot the system.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can state that windows operating system has several advantages that made it globally very popular computer operating system, but there are also some down-sides that this operating system have.