Drivers teach the operating system to interact with each bit of hardware. Graphics cards, sound cards, networking cards, USB peripherals, and everything else you connect to your computer relies on drivers. The operating system then uses these drivers to ensure correct operation of each device.

Does an operating system manage hardware or software?

The operating system’s job

Your computer’s operating system (OS) manages all of the software and hardware on the computer. Most of the time, there are several different computer programs running at the same time, and they all need to access your computer’s central processing unit (CPU), memory, and storage.

What computer hardware is managed by the operating system and how does it manage the hardware?

An operating system manages the applications and “resources” (such as disk drives, memory and processors/cores). Any device inside the computer or plugged into the computer system is managed by the operating system. The operating system manages running applications or programs, which are called processes.