CompTIA A+® Certification All-In-One For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2. Working with Applications

Exam Objectives

• Identify how MS-DOS, 16-bit Windows, and 32-bit Windows applications operate in Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista

• Diagnose applications install, start, or load failures with Windows XP

When MS-DOS was first created, very few applications were available for it. Many people chose to use the BASIC programming language to write their own applications. But in short order, people developed faster applications by first using Assembler and then higher-level languages, such as C. These applications served users well for several years. When Windows debuted, Microsoft built in as much backward compatibility for these older applications as it could. Microsoft knew that if the Windows operating system (OS) did not allow older applications to work with it, current MS-DOS users might not want to adopt it. To this day, Microsoft attempts to provide the most backward compatibility possible in its OSes.

When the 16-bit Windows environment, such as Windows 3.0, needed applications, they were developed and worked well. In later generations, these applications were superseded by 32-bit versions for the newer OSes, and now 64-bit versions for the newest OSes. The newer applications work with data in larger chunks and run faster. In this chapter, you take a look at how all these applications run on your computer.

To properly maintain and diagnose applications, an A+ Certified Professional must be able to manage the installation and removal ...