Operating Systems & Networking Principles - Comprehensive Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering Windows administration, user accounts, NTFS permissions, network addressing, maintenance, installation, and troubleshooting based on CT 1010 and CT 1030 lecture materials.

Authentication

The process of identifying and granting access to some user, usually a person, who is trying to access a system.

Authorization

The process that defines what resources an authenticated user may access and what they may do with those resources.

User Account

The identity Windows uses to associate activity and access with a particular user, identified by its username.

User Profile

A storage container that holds a user's Windows settings and personal folders, such as Desktop, Documents, and Pictures.

Local Account

A Windows account managed on one specific PC and used for signing in to that PC only.

Microsoft Account

A Windows account registered centrally with Microsoft, used to sign in to Windows and supported Microsoft services with a single identity.

Standard User

A user account type that can run applications and work with files and settings that the account has permission to access.

Administrator

A user account belonging to the Administrators group that can manage other user accounts and make protected system-wide changes.

Principle of Least Privilege

The security concept of granting and using only the privileges needed to accomplish a specific task.

Elevation

The process of temporarily granting a particular program administrator privileges when needed.

Group

A container that holds user accounts and defines the capabilities and permissions of its members.

Local Users and Groups (lusrmgr.msc)

A Windows management snap-in used to create and manage local user accounts and group memberships on a PC.

Windows Hello

A Windows authentication framework supporting a device-specific PIN, fingerprint recognition, or facial recognition.

NTFS

A Windows file system that organizes files on a storage volume and supports access permissions, compression, encryption, and disk quotas.

NTFS Permissions

Rulesets connected to every file and folder that define exactly what any account or group can or cannot do to that item.

Inheritance

The mechanism by which a file or subfolder automatically receives NTFS permissions from its parent folder.

Encrypting File System (EFS)

A Windows feature that encrypts selected files and folders on an NTFS volume using user encryption certificates.

BitLocker

A Windows feature that encrypts an entire storage volume, including the operating system drive, to protect stored data.

BitLocker To Go

A feature that extends BitLocker encryption protection to removable storage volumes, such as USB flash drives.

Trusted Platform Module (TPM)

A hardware component that helps protect unlocking keys and checks the system startup environment for BitLocker.

Local Security Policy (secpol.msc)

A administrative tool used to configure local security rules, including password policies, account lockout thresholds, user rights, and auditing.

User Account Control (UAC)

A security infrastructure that manages and prompts for authorization when programs request administrative privileges.

MAC Address

A 48-bit (six-byte) data-link layer address written as twelve hexadecimal digits that uniquely identifies a network interface on a local link.

MAC Address Table

A table maintained inside a switch that maps learned source MAC addresses to their corresponding physical switch ports.

Flooding

The process where a switch forwards a copy of an incoming frame out all eligible ports except the arrival port when the destination MAC address is unknown.

IP Address

A network-layer logical address (32-bit IPv4 or 128-bit IPv6) used to deliver data packets within and between networks.

Octet

Explicitly a group of eight bits; four octets comprise a 32-bit IPv4 address written in dotted-decimal notation.

Subnet Mask

A 32-bit binary mask whose leading 1 bits designate the network portion of an IPv4 address and remaining 0 bits designate the host portion.

CIDR Notation

A notation format that appends a slash followed by the prefix length in bits ($/n$) to an IP address to indicate the network portion.

Default Gateway

The router interface on the local subnet that network nodes send traffic to when attempting to reach destinations outside the local network.

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)

A protocol that resolves a known local IPv4 address to its corresponding data-link layer MAC address.

Private IPv4 Addresses

Reserved IPv4 address ranges (10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16) used exclusively within private networks and not routable across the public Internet.

Loopback Address

A special IP address (127.0.0.1 in IPv4, ::1 in IPv6) used by a node to direct network traffic back to itself.

Limited Broadcast Address

The IPv4 address 255.255.255.255, which addresses all nodes on the local network and is not forwarded by routers.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

An application-layer protocol that automates the distribution of IP addresses, subnet masks, default gateways, and other network settings.

DHCP Reservation

A specific IP address set aside on a DHCP server for a particular client identified by its MAC address.

Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA)

A Windows feature that assigns a link-local IPv4 address in the 169.254.x.x range when a DHCP client cannot obtain a lease.

Port (Transport Layer)

A 16-bit number (0 to 65535) used by TCP and UDP to identify specific application or service processes on a host.

Socket

A logical endpoint consisting of a host's IP address and a transport port number separated by a colon.

Network Address Translation (NAT)

A routing technique in which a gateway replaces private source IP addresses in packets with a public IP address when accessing an outside network.

Port Address Translation (PAT)

A form of NAT that allows multiple private hosts to share a single public IP address by mapping unique internal IP-and-port pairs to unique external port numbers.

Name Resolution

The process of discovering the IP address corresponding to a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) using DNS.

Maintenance

Recurring work done from time to time to keep an operating system in good working order.

Optimization

A deliberate change made to a system intended to make it work better.

Patch Management

The process of keeping software updated in a safe and timely fashion.

Quality Update

A Windows update that fixes bugs, resolves security weaknesses, or addresses issues in the currently installed version.

Feature Update

A major Windows update that introduces a newer version of the operating system and modifies system capabilities.

Active Hours

A Windows setting that specifies when a user normally works, preventing automatic update restarts during those hours.

Task Scheduler (taskschd.msc)

A Windows utility that executes programs automatically at scheduled times or when specific system events occur.

Trigger

A setting in Task Scheduler that defines the condition or time that tells Windows when to start a task.

Action (Task Scheduler)

A setting in Task Scheduler that specifies which program to run and which command-line options to use.

Autostarting Software

Programs configured to launch automatically when Windows boots up, managed via Task Manager's Startup view.

Standalone Executable

An application file that runs directly without requiring a separate installation process.

ISO File

A single file containing a complete copy or image of an optical disc or storage media device.

Page File

An area on mass storage that Windows uses as virtual memory to hold inactive data paged out of physical RAM.

Data Execution Prevention (DEP)

A memory safety feature that uses CPU memory protection to prevent code from executing in non-executable data regions.

Full Backup

A backup method that creates a complete copy of the entire selected set of files at a given point in time.

Incremental Backup

A backup method that records only the files and data changed since the preceding backup of any type in the sequence.

Differential Backup

A backup method that records all files and data changed since the last full backup.

Synthetic Full Backup

A new full backup built by merging a previous full backup with all subsequent incremental backups saved on storage.

Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS)

A backup rotation scheme that maintains daily (son), weekly (father), and monthly (grandfather) backup sets.

Restore Point

A saved snapshot of a computer's system configuration, registry, and system files used by System Restore.

Operating System (OS)

A series of programs and code that creates an interface so users can interact with a system's hardware.

Windows Version

An identifier for a major release of Windows, such as Windows 10 or Windows 11.

Windows Edition

A variant of a Windows version tailored with specific features and limits (e.g., Home vs. Pro).

Clean Install

An OS installation method involving installing onto an empty drive or completely replacing an existing installation.

Upgrade Installation

An OS installation method that installs Windows on top of an earlier version, retaining existing files, settings, and applications.

Multiboot Installation

An OS setup where multiple operating systems are installed on separate drive partitions with a boot manager to select which starts.

Unattended Installation

An OS installation method where automated answer scripts perform all setup duties without human intervention.

Image Deployment

An OS installation technique that copies a complete hard drive image from a server or media to target client computers.

Partitioning

The process of electronically subdividing a physical hard drive into one or more logical units called partitions or volumes.

Formatting

The process of preparing a partition to store files by creating a file system structure and a root directory.

Master Boot Record (MBR)

A legacy drive layout storing startup code and a partition table at Sector 0 of a disk.

GUID Partition Table (GPT)

A modern drive partitioning scheme supporting larger disks, backup headers, and up to 128 partitions under UEFI firmware.

Symptom

What a user observes when a system failure occurs, as distinguished from the root cause that explains why it happens.

Memory Leak

A software bug that occurs when a program continuously fails to release RAM it no longer needs, leading to memory exhaustion.

Service

A background process in Windows that provides system functions or application support without requiring user interaction.

System File Checker (sfc)

A Windows command-line utility (sfc /scannow) that scans protected system files for corruption and attempts to repair them.

Check Disk (chkdsk)

A Windows command-line utility that inspects a volume's file system for logical errors (/f) and scans for physical bad sectors (/r).

Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE)

A specialized recovery framework offering diagnostic and repair tools when the installed Windows system cannot boot normally.

Safe Mode

A diagnostic boot mode that loads Windows with a minimal set of basic drivers and services to isolate software or driver faults.

DiskPart

A command-line disk management utility (diskpart) used to list, create, format, modify, and delete drive partitions and volumes.

Blue Screen of Death (BSoD)

A Stop error screen displayed when Windows encounters an unrecoverable kernel-level hardware or driver failure.

Fast Startup

A Windows feature that saves kernel session and driver states to disk upon shutdown to accelerate subsequent boot times.

Reliability Monitor

A Windows administrative utility that plots system stability on a timeline, tracking application crashes, OS failures, warnings, and updates.

Time Drift

A condition where a computer's hardware clock gradually gains or loses time relative to network time synchronization servers.