Software Utilities
Utility programs are software programs that add functionality to your computer or help your computer perform better. These include:
Anti virus
Backup
Disk Repair
File Management
Security
Networking Programs
Some utility programs help keep your computer free from unwanted software such as viruses or spy ware, while others add functionality that allows you to customise your desktop and user interface.
Programs that help make your computer better are considered utilities.
Anti virus - A type of utility used for scanning and removing viruses from your computer. Most anti virus programs include both automatic and manual scanning capabilities. The automatic scan may check files that are downloaded from the Internet, Discs that are inserted into the computer, and files that are created by software installers. It can also scan the entire hard drive on a regular basis. The manual scan option allows you to scan individual files or your entire system whenever you fell it is necessary. Anti virus software may also be bundled with firewall features, which helps prevent unauthorised access to your computer. I.e. Internet is not a secure place by any means and even the most tech-savvy users have a relatively high likelihood downloading some form of malware or becoming the victim of an identity-stealing scam just by going online occasionally. Virus are the most well known computer attackers and they can do all sorts of damage. It is very important to have anti virus, as this helps the computer to defends against known threats as well as suspicious behaviour. Without proper defences, viruses can affect your computer I.e. slow performance, lost data and other consequences that may cost you a lot of money. It also scans your computer to see if they are any potential threats, and allows you to remove them. Remember that hackers are creating trickier and trickier viruses everyday. Once viruses have infected your computer, they can drastically slow your processing speeds, delete critical and important personal files and images and in the worst case, cause irreparable physical damage to your computer, It can cost you thousands in computer- replacement costs and cause you to lose very important document and photos.
Utilities that include both anti virus and firewall capabilities are typically branded "Internet Security" software.
Backup - The most important computer term your should know. Backup is a copy of one or more files created as an alternate in case the original data is lost or becomes unusable. I.e. You mat save several copies of research paper on your hand drive as backup files in case you decide to use a previous revision. Better yet, you could save the backup to a USB flash disk, which would also protect the files if the hard drive failed. Computer fill our life and our work. They accumulate all important stuffs. But, unless you back it up, all that data can be gone like a flash of lightning. Why are backups important? Backups include: Protecting your computer from hardware failure, viruses, accidental deletion and from fires, floods and other disaster that an happen.
Cookie - A small amount of data generated by a website and saved by your web browser. Its purpose is to remember information about you , similar to a preference file created by a software application. While cookies serve many functions, their most common purpose is to store log in information for a specific site. Some sites will save both your user name and password in a cookie, while other will only save your user name. It is important to remove cookies, for the reason that if you didn't remove it other people could have an access to your personal account.
Defragment - Defragmenting your hard disk is a great way to boost the performance of your computer. The term "defragment" sounds a little abrasive, but it is actually a simple and helpful process. Defragmenting your hard disk is such a good idea. As you start to hear extra grinding sounds, or your computer doesn't open files as quickly as it did before, then it is time to defragment it. This helps the computer to pick up all of the pieces of data that are spread across your hard drive and put them back together again. It also improves the performance of the computer system by rearranging files so that gaps are used up systematically, leaving available space for other files. Making it more organised and structured.
Drive Formatting - Physical (low-level) Formatting
This test your computer system by scanning for imperfections and setting aside files that cannot be used by the user anymore. This improves the performance of the computer system by giving them space and making it work faster and quicker than before, which also makes programs more responsive after the formatting.
Firewalls
Firewall is a network security, that put protective barrier in your system. This helps users to control access on data on a particular workstation, so that only authorised programs can access it. Firewall also helps user to put a different security level to their system, by preventing traffic from non-authenticated machines. It also enables users to decide which files or programs are allowed to use the network. This improves the performance of the computer system by blocking anyone who tries to gain access to the system and also prevents users accessing websites that might have viruses, which means that this helps the system to run effectively and prevent it from running slow.
