Difference between Hardware and Software

Both hardware and software are completely different from each other because the hardware is a physical peripheral device that can be seen and touched, and felt by the eyes whereas software There is a program or a group of instructions that can't be seen and felt.

Hardware and Software

Difference between Hardware and Software: Hardware (H/W) and Software (S/W) are both the most important components for a computer to function well. It would not be possible to use any computer system without both Hardware (H/W) and Software (S/W).

If we talk about the Hardware and Software, then both are completely different from each other because the hardware is a physical peripheral device that can be seen and touched, and felt by the eyes whereas software There is a program or a group of instructions that can’t be seen and felt.

Difference between Hardware and Software

Computer H/W cannot be easily changed, it is fixed in a way but the S/W is not always fixed. This can be modified or updated as per the requirement.

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Apart from this, there are some other important differences in Hardware (H/W) and Software (S/W), which we will understand below through the difference table, but before that, we know better what is hardware and software.

What is Computer Hardware?

Computer hardware is the physical components that are essential for a computer system to function. Without any hardware, you cannot imagine computers and software cannot be used.

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Computer hardware means any part of the computer that we can see and touch is all hardware. These are the primary electronic devices used to make computers. Examples of hardware in a computer are a processor, a memory device, monitor, printer, keyboard, mouse and central processing unit, etc.

Example of Hardware

As we mentioned there are many examples of hardware. Mainly computer hardware is classified into three categories – input, output, and processing devices.

Input devices − keyboard, mouse, etc.
Output devices − printer, monitor, etc.
Processing devices – CPU, ALU, CU (Control Unit), and Storage devices.

What is Computer Software?

Software is a collection of many procedures, instructions, documentation, we can also say that computer software is the programming code executed on a computer processor which tells a computer exactly what to do.

The software in the computer itself allows users to interact with the computer. Software is most important to a computer or other similar device because without software most computers can be useless.

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Example of Software

If a software program, MS-Word, is not installed on your computer, you cannot do any work done through MS-Word on your computer and if your system does not have any Internet browser software, Even so, you cannot surf the Internet or visit any website.

That’s why software programs are very essential for a computer. Examples of some software are Ms. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Google Chrome, Photoshop, MySQL, etc.

Relationship between Hardware and Software

If we talk about the relationship between hardware and software, then it is dependent on each other, without Hardware (H/W) and Software (S/W) cannot work and without hardware, the software cannot be used. The two have to work together to give the computer useful output.

Hardware and Software

The S/W acts as an interface (Basically a medium) between the user and the H/W. If hardware is the ‘heart’ of a system, then the software is its ‘soul’ and both are complementary to both.

Difference between Hardware and Software

So far above, we have known that what is called H/W and S/W, if you have read all the things given above carefully, then you must have come to know very well what are both?

Difference between Hardware and Software

If you still have any confusion in understanding what is H/W and S/W and what is the difference between them, then now we are going to tell you some important differences between them below.

HardwareSoftware
The physical parts of a computer are called hardware.Software is a set of instructions that tell the computer exactly what to do.
Hardware is manufactured.Software is developed.
Hardware cannot perform any function without software.The software cannot be executed without hardware.
As hardware is a physical electronic device that we can see and touch.We can see and use the software but can’t actually touch them.
Hardware is not affected by computer viruses.Software is affected by computer viruses.
There are four main categories of hardware: input devices, output devices, storage, and internal components.It is mainly divided into system software, programming software, and application software.
It cannot be transferred from one place to another through the network.But the software can be transferred through the network.
If the hardware is damaged, it is replaced with new.If the software is damaged, its backup copy can be reinstalled.
Ex: Monitor, Printer, Keyboard, Mouse, CPU, ROM, Hard disk, RAM, etc.Ex: MS Word, MS Excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop, Chrome, etc.

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