A+ Test (801 & 802)

%SystemRoot% The path where the operating system is installed.
10BaseT Ethernet LAN designed to run on twisted pair cabling at 10 megabits per second. Max cable length is 100 meters. Uses baseband signaling.
100BaseT Generic term for Ethernet cabling system designed to run at 100 megabits per second on twisted pair cabling. Uses baseband signaling.
1000BaseT Gigabit Ethernet on UTP.
110 block The most common connection used with structured cabling, connecting horizontal cable runs with patch panels.
16 bit (PC Card) Type of PC Card that can have up to 2 distinct functions or devices, such as a modem/network card combo.
3.5 inch floppy drive Size of all modern floppy disk drives; format was introduced in 1986.
2.1 speaker system Speaker setup consisting of 2 stereo speakers combined with a subwoofer.
34 pin ribbon cable Type of cable used by floppy disk drives.
3-D graphics Video technology that attempts to create images with the same depth and texture as objects seen int he real world.
40 pin ribbon cable PATA cable used to attach EIDE devices (such as hard drives) ATAPI devices (such as optical drives) to a system
5.1 speaker system Speaker setup sonsisting of 4 satellite speakers plus a center speaker and subwoofer.
64 bit processing Atype of processing that can run a compatable 64 bit operating system, such as Windows 7, and 64 bit applicatins. 64 bit PCs have a 64 bit wide address bus enabling them to use more than 4GB of RAM.
8.3 naming system File naming convention that specified a maximum of 8 characters for a file name, followed by a 3 character file extension. Has been replaced by LFN (long filename) support.
80 wire ribbon cable PATA cable used to attach fast EIDE devices (such as ATA/100 hard drives) or ATAPI devices (such as optical drives) to a system.
802.11a Wireless networking standard that operates in the 5GHz band with a theoretical maximum throughput of 54 Mbps.
802.11b Wireless networking standard that operates int he 2.4 GHz band with a theoretical maximum throughput of 11 Mbps.
802.11g Wireless network standard that operates in the 2.4 GHz band with a theoretical maximum throughput of 54 Mbps and is backward compatible with 802.11b.
802.11n Wireless networking standard that can operate in both the 2.4 GHz and 5GHz bands and uses multiple in/ multiple out (MIMO) to achieve a theoretical maximum throughput of 100+ Mbps.
A/V sync Process of synchronizing audio and video.
AC (alternating current) Type of electricity in which the flow of electrons alternates direction, back and forth, in a circuit.
AC'97 Sound card standard for lower-end audio devices; created when most folks listened to stereo sound at best. accelerometer Feature in smartphones and tablets that rotates the screen when the device is physically rotated. access control Security concept using physical security, authentication, users and groups, and security policies.
ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Power management specification that far surpasses its predecessor, APM, by providing support for hot-swappable devices and better control of power modes.
Action Center A one-page aggregation of event messages, warnings, and maintenance messages in Windows 7. activation Process of confirming that an installed copy of a Microsoft product (usually Windows or Office) is legitimate. Usually done at end of software installation. active matrix Type of liquid crystal display (LCD) that replaced the passive matrix technology used in most portable computer displays. Also called TFT (thin film transfer). active partition On a hard drive, primary partition that contains an operating system. active PFC (power factor correction) Circuitry built into PC power supplies to reduce harmonics. activity light An LED on an NIC, hub or switch that blinks rapidly to show data transfers over the network. ad hoc mode Decentralized wireless network mode, otherwise known as peer-to-peer mode, where each wireless node is in meshed contact with every other node.
Add or Remove Programs Applet allowing users to manually add or remove a program from the system. address bus Set of wires leading from the CPU to the MCC (traditionally the northbridge) that enables the CPU to address RAM. Also used by the CPU for I/O addressing. On current CPUs with built in memory controllers, it refers to the internal electronic channel from the microprocessor to the RAM, along which the addresses of memory storage locations are transmitted. It provides the means by which the microprocessor can address every location in memory. address space Total amount of memory that an address bus can contain. administrative shares Administrator tool to give local admins access to hard drives and system root folders.
Administrative Tools Group of control panel applets, including Computer Management, Event Viewer, and Reliability and Performance monitor. administrator account User account, created when the OS is first installed, that is allowed complete, unfettered access to the system without restriction.
Administrative group List of members with complete administrative privileges.
ADSL (asymmetrical digital subscriber line) Fully digital, dedicated connection to the telephone system that provides average download speeds of 7 Mbps and upload speeds of 512 Kbps.
AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) A block cypher created in the late 1990s that uses a 128-bit block size and a 128-, 129-, or 256-bit key size. Practically uncrackable.
Advanced Startup Options Menu Menu that can be reached during the boot process that offers advanced OS startup options such as boot to Safe Mode or boot into Last Known Good Configuration. adware Type of malicious program that downloads ads to a user's computer, generating undesirable network traffic.
Aero The Windows Vista/7 desktop environment. It adds some interesting aesthetic effects like transparency and Flip 3D.
AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) 32/64 bit expansion slot designed by Intel specifically for video that runs at 66 MHz and yields a throughput of at least 254 Mbps. Later versions (2x,4x,8x) give substantially more higher throughput. algorithm Set of rules for solving a problem in a given number of steps.
ALU (arithmetic logic unit) CPU logic circuits that perform basic arithmetic (add, subtract, multiply and divide).
AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) CPU and chipset manufacturer that competes with Intel. Produces the popular Phenom, Athlon, Sempron, Turion, and Duron microprocessors; also produces video card processors under its ATI brand.
AMI (American Megatrends, Inc.) Major producer of BIOS software for motherboards, as well as many other computer related components and software. analog Device that uses a physical quantity, such as length or voltage, to represent the value of a number, by contrast, digital storage relies on a coding system of numeric units. amperes (amps or A) Unit of measure for amperage, or electrical current. amplitude Loudness of sound card.
Android Smartphone and tablet OS created by Google. anti-aliasing In computer imaging, blending effect that smooths sharp contrast between two regions (jagged lines, different colors); reduces jagged edges of text or objects. In voice signal processing, process of removing or smoothing our spurious frequencies from waveforms produced by converting digital signals back to analog. anti-static bag Bag made of anti-static plastic into which electronics are placed for temporary or long-term storage. Used to protect components from electrostatic discharge. anti-static wrist strap Special device worm around the wrist with a grounding connection designed to equalize electrical potential between a technician and an electronic device. Used to prevent ESD. antivirus program Software designed to combat viruses either by seeking out and destroying them or passively guarding against them.
API (application programming interface) Software definition that describes operating system calls for application software; conventions defining how a service is invoked.
APIPA (Automatic Private IP Addressing) Feature of Windows that automatically assigns an IP address to the system when the client cannot obtain an IP address automatically.
APM (Advanced Power Management) BIOS routines that enable the CPU to turn on and off selected peripherals. app A progrman for a tablet or smartphone. applet Generic term for a program in the Windows Control Panel.
Applications Name of the tab in Task Manager that lists running applications. archive To copy programs and data onto a relatively inexpensive storage medium (disk, tape, etc.) for long term retention. archive attribute Attribute of a file that shows whether the file has been backed up since the last change. Each time a file is opened or saved, the archive bit is turned on. Some types of backups turn off this archive bit to indicate that a good backup of the file exists on tape.
ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) Protocol in the TCP/IP suite used with the command-line utility of the same name (arp) to determine the MAC address that corresponds to a particular IP address.
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) Industry-standard 8-bit characters used to define text character, consisting of 96 upper and lower case letters, plus 32 non-printing control characters, each of which is numbered. These numbers were designed to achieve uniformity among computer devices for printing and the exchange of simple text documents. aspect ratio Ratio of width to height of an object. Standard television is 4:3.
ASR (Automated System Recovery) Windows XP tool designed to recover a badly corrupted Windows system; similar to the ERD in Windows 2000. assertive communication Means of communication that is not pushy or bossy but is also not soft. Useful in dealing with upset customers as it both defuses their anger and gives them confidence that you know what you're doing.
AT (Advanced Technology) Model name of the second generation, 80286-based IBM computer. Many aspects, such as the BIOS, CMOS and expansion bus have become de facto standards in the PC industry. The physical organization of the components on the motherboard is called the __ form factor.
ATA (AT Attachment) Type of hard drive and controller designed to replace the earlier ST506 and ESDI drives without requiring replacement of the BIOS. These drive are more popularly known as IDE drives.
ATA/ ATAPI -6 Also known as ATA-6 or "Big Drive." Replaced the INT13 extensions and allowed for hard drives as large as 144 petabytes (144 million GB).
ATAPI (ATA Packet Interface) Series of standards that enables mass strorage devices other than hard drives to use the IDE/ATA controllers. Popular with optical drives.
ATAPI-compliant Devices that utilize the ATAPI standard.
Athlon Name used for a popular series of CPUs manufactured by AMD attrib.exe Command used to view the specific properties of a file; can also be used to modify or remove file properties, such as read-only, system, or archive. attributes Values in a file that determine the hidden, read-only, system, and archive status of the file.
ATX (Advanced Technology Extended) Popular motherboard form factor that generally replaced the AT form factor. audio interface High end external sound device used by audio engineers and recording artists. authentication Any method a computer uses to determine who can access it. authorization Any method a computer uses to determine what an authenticated user can do. autodetection Process throuhg which new disks are automatically recognized by the BIOS.
APIPA (Automatic Private IP Addressing) A networking feature of operating systems that enables DHCP clients to self configure an IP address and subnet mask automatically when a DHCP server isn't available.
Automatic Updates Feature allowing updates to Windows to be retrieved automatically over the Internet.
AutoPlay Windows XP/Vista/7 setting, along with autorun.inf, enabling Windows to automatically detect media files and begin using them. autorun.inf File included on some media that automatically launches a program or installation routine when the media is inserted attached to a system. autosensing Used bu better quality sound cards to detect a device plugged into a port and adapt to the features of that port. auto-switching power supply Type of power supply able to detect the voltage of a particular outlet and adjust accordingly.
Award Software Major brand of BIOS software for motherboards. Owned by Phoenix Technologies. backlight One of three main components used in LCDs to illuminate an image. backside bus Set of wires that connects the CPU to Level 2 cache. First appearing in the Pentium Pro, all modern CPUs have one. Some run at the full speed of the CPU, others run at a fraction.
Backup and Restore Center Windows Vista/7's backup utility ( 7 drops "center" from the name). It offers two options: create a backup or restore form a backup.
Backup or Restore Wizard Utility contained within Windows that allows users to create system backups and set system restore points.
Backup Utility (ntbackup) Windows XP's tool for creating and restoring backups. ball mouse Input device that enables users to manipulate a cursor on the screen by using a ball and sensors that detect the movement and direction of the ball. bandwidth Piece of the spectrum occupied by some form of signal such as television, voice or fax data. Signals require a certain size and location of it to be transmitted. Because it is a limited space, when one user is occupying it, others must wait their turn. It is also the capacity of a network to transmit a given amount of data during a given period. bank Total number of SIMMs or DIMMs that can be accessed simultaneously by the chipset. The "width" of the external data bus divided by the "width" of the SIMM or DIMM sticks. DIMM slots that must be populated to activate dual or triple channel memory. bar code reader Tool to read Universal Product Code (UPC). basic disk Hard drive partitioned in the "classic" way with a master boot record and partition table. baud One analog cycle on a telephone line. In the early days of telephone data transmission, this was often analogous to bits per second. Due to advancements this is no longer true. bcedit a command-line tool that enables you to view the BCD store, which lists the Windows boot options.
BD-R (Blu-ray Disc-Recordable) Blu-ray Disc format that enables writing data to blank discs.
BD-RE(Blu-ray Disc-REwritable) Blu-ray disc equivalent of the rewritable DVD, allows writing and rewriting several times on the same BD.
BD-ROM Blu-ray Disc equivalent of a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM. beep codes Series of audible tones produced by a motherboard during the POST. These tones identify whether the POST has completed successfully or whether some piece of the system hardware is not working properly. Consult the manual for your particular motherboard for a specific list of beeps. binary numbers Number system with a base of 2. They are preferred for computers for precision and economy. An electronic circuit that can detect the difference between two states (on-ff,0-1) is easier and more inexpensive to build than one that could detect differences among ten states (0-9). biometric device hardware device used to support authentication; works by scanning and remembering a unique aspect of a user's various body parts (e.g., retina, iris, face or fingerprint) by using some form of sensing device such as a retinal scanner.
BIOS (basic input / output services) Classically, software routines burned onto the system ROM of a PC. More commonly seen as any software that directly controls a particular piece of hardware. A set of programs encoded in read-only memory (ROM) on computers. These programs handle start up operations and low-level control of hardware such as disk drives, the keyboard, and monitor. bit Single binary digit. also, any device that can be in an on or off state. bit depth number of colors a video card is capable of producing. Common ones are 16-bit and 32-bit, representing 65536 colors and 16.7 million colors (plus an 8-bit alpha channel for transparency levels), respectively.
BitLocker Drive Encryption Drive encryption software offered in Windows Vista/ 7 Ultimate and enterprise editions. It requires a special chip to validate hardware status and to ensure that the computer hasn't been hacked.
Bluetooth wireless technology designed to create small wireless networks pre-configured to do specific jobs, but not meant to replace full function networks or Wi-Fi.
BD (Blue-ray Disc) Optical disc format that stores 25 or 50 GB of data, designed to be the replacement media for DVD. Competed with HD DVD. boot To initiate an automatic routine that clears the memory, loads the operating system, and prepares the computer for use. Term is derived fro "pull yourself up by your bootstraps." PCs must do this because RAM doesn't retain program instructions when power is tuned off. A cold ____ occurs when the PC is physically switched on. A warm ____ loads a fresh OS without turning off the computer, lessening the strain on the electric circuitry.
BCD (Boot Configuration Data) file File that contains information about the various operating systems installed on the system as well as instructions on how to actually load (bootstrap) them. boot sector First sector on a PC hard drive or floppy disk, track 0. The boot-up software in ROM tells the computer to load whatever program is found there. If a system disk is read, the program in the boot record directs the computer to the root directory to load the OS. boot.ini Text file used during the boot process that provides a list of all OSs currently installed and available for ntldr (NT Loader). Also tells where each OS is located on the system. Used in Windows XP and earlier Microsoft operating systems. bootable disk Disk that contains a functional operating system; can also be a floppy disk, USB thumb drive or optical disc. bootmgr Windows Vista/ 7's Boot Manager. bootrec A Windows Recover Environment troubleshooting and repair tool that requires the master boot record, boot sector, or BCD store. It replaces the fixboot and fxmbr Recovery Console commands used in Windows XP and earlier operating systems. bootstrap loader Segment of code in a system's BIOS that scans for an operating system, looks specifically for a valid boot sector, and, when one is found, hands control over to the boot sector; then it removes itself from memory. bps (bits per second) Measurement of how fast data is moved from one place to another. A56k modem can move ~56000 bits per second. bridge A device that connects two networks and passes traffic between them based only on the node address, so that traffic between nodes on one network does not appear on the other network. For example, an Ethernet ___ only looks at the MAC address. They filter and forward packets based on MAC addressed and operate at Level 2 (Data Link layer) of the OSI seven-layer model. broadband Commonly understood as a reference to high-speed, always-on communication links that can move large files much more quickly than a regular phone line. broadcast A network transmission addressed for every node on the network. browser Program specifically designed to retrieve, interpret, and display Web pages.
BSoD - Blue Screen of Death Infamous error screen that appears when Windows encounters and unrecoverable error.
BTX (Balanced Technology eXtended) Motherboard form factor designed as an improvement over ATX. buffer underrun Inability of a source device to provide a CD burner with a constant stream of data while burning a CD-R or CD-RW. buffered/registered DRAM Usually seen in motherboards supporting more than 4 sticks of RAM, required to address interface issues caused by the additional sticks. bug Programming error that causes a program or a computer system to perform erratically, produce incorrect results, or crash. The term was coined when a real bug was found in one of the circuits of one of the first ENIAC computers. burn Process of writing data to a writable optical disc, such as a DV-R. burn-in-failure Critical failure usually associated with manufacturing defects. bus series of wires connecting two or more separate electronic devices, enabling them to communicate. Also, a network topology where computers all connect to a main line called a bus cable. bus mastering Circuitry allowing devices to avoid conflicts on the external data bus. bus topology Network configuration wherein all computers connect to the network via a central bus cable. byte Unit of 8 bits; fundamental data unit of personal computers. Storing the equivalent of one character, the byte is also the basic unit of measurement for computer storage.
CAB files short for cabinet files. These files are compressed and most commonly used during OS installation to store many smaller files, such as device drivers. cache (disk) Special area of RAM that stores the data most frequently accessed from the hard drive. Cache memory can optimize the use of your systems. cache (L1, L2, L3, etc.) Special section of fast memory, usually built into the CPU, used by the onboard logic to store information most frequently accessed by the CPU. calibration Process of matching the print output of a printer to the visual output of a monitor. capacitive touchscreen Type of touchscreen that uses electrical current in your body to determine movement of your finger across the screen. card reader Device with which you can read data from one of several types of flash memory. card services Uppermost level of PCMCIA services.This level recognizes the function of a particular PC Card and provides the specialized drivers necessary to make the card work.
CardBus 32 bit PC cards that can support up to eight devices on each card. Electrically incompatible with earlier PC cards (3.3 V versus 5 V).
CAT 5 - Category 5 wire A TIA/EIA standard for UTP wiring that can operate at up to 100 megabits per second.
CAT 5e - Category 5e wire A TIA/EIA standard for UTP wiring that can operate at up to 1 gigabit per seccond.
CAT 6 - Category 6 wire TIA/EIA standard for UTP wiring that can operate at up to 10 gigabits per second.