Memory management in an operating system is responsible for what function?

Memory management in an operating system is a critical function that involves allocating and deallocating memory space for various processes and applications running on the system. This ensures that each process has enough memory to execute effectively while preventing memory leaks and fragmentation. The operating system maintains this functionality by keeping track of each byte in a computer's memory and managing the distribution among processes to optimize performance and resource utilization.

Allocating memory involves assigning physical or virtual memory addresses to processes, whereas deallocating memory involves freeing up the memory that a process no longer needs, making it available for other processes. This dynamic management helps in utilizing memory efficiently, allowing for multitasking and smooth operation of applications.

Other options, such as positioning graphical elements or managing user preferences, are tasks that are generally handled by different components of the operating system or application software, not directly tied to memory management. Similarly, running system diagnostics relates to checking the health and performance of the system, which also falls outside the scope of memory management. Thus, the primary role of memory management is accurately described by the allocation and deallocation of memory space.