What Is A Computer Program?

what are computer programs? well a program is a set of data that interacts with the hardware to accomplish a task. for example, to read this tutorial, you are using a program, your browser. the browser you are using to read this information on the internet is called a program. a program can be a single data file or many files that interact with each other. some of the programs are loaded into many parts of your computer hardware, such as your computer's memory, when you fist turn on the computer, the other programs are started only when you need them, like a browser or word processor or media player.

programs are usually stored on hardware such as CD-ROMS, hard disk or floppy disk. program st are used to control individual devices are often embedded in memory chips on the device itself such as on a cell phone.

did you know that when a program is running, its activity is referred to as a process. when you boot up a computer, some processes might be started. each representing the programs that bring the machine to running condition. as you open more programs and ask the compute to do more tasks, more process will be started.