An operating system provides an environment for program execution, input/output operations, file system manipulation, communications, and error detection. It loads programs into memory, allows programs to end execution normally or abnormally, enables input/output access to files and devices that users cannot directly control, permits programs to read, write, create and delete files, and facilitates communication between processes on the same or different systems. The operating system also monitors for errors in hardware, devices, and programs to take appropriate corrective actions.