Operating environment

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In computing, an operating environment is the environment in which users run programs, whether in a command line interface, such as in MS-DOS or the Unix shell, or in a graphical user interface, such as in the Macintosh operating system. An operating environment does not mean that the system is a full operating system. For an example, the first version of Microsoft Windows was not a full operating system, but a GUI laid over DOS. Other examples of operating systems include RISC OS which was used on Acorn computers.