User Management
Computer Science: Edexcel IGCSE, topic 4.4.6
User Management
Operating systems differ in the number of simultaneous users that they support.
Single-user operating system
- A single-user operating system is an OS which supports one user at a time.
- A single-user OS may or may not support multiple user accounts, although only one account may access the system at a time.
Multi-user operating system
- A multi-user operating system allows several users to be connected at the same time.
User manager
- A user manager keeps track of which users can access the system and who is currently logged in.
- The user manager also handles authentication, or logging in.
- The user manager is also responsible for making decisions based on access rights:
- For example: Can user X access document Y?
Test yourself on User Management
How many user accounts can a single-user operating system support at one time?