Operating system utilities

Operating system utilities

1. Maintenance Utilities

   • Backup
     • Allows user to save all of their settings and files in case of a system malfunction.
   • Disk Cleaner
     • Storage drives are divided into clusters and when you delete a file, this program finds the cluster and allows the cluster location to be removed, therefore allowing another cluster to overwrite.
   • Disk Defragmentation
     • Over time, small clusters of drive space become cleared creating a tiny piece of unwritten data on the hard drive. Defragmentstion software gets rid of the smaller empty clusters to increase efficiency of the system storage.
   • Formatting
     • Hard drives need to be formatted to be used with a certain OS e.g windows, linux, Mac OS so that files saved to it can be read.

2. Security Utilities

   • User accounts
     • Keeps Seperate accounts on one computer in seperate parts of the hard drive. this is good for family use but no good for protecting you againced attacks
   • Encryption
     • Encrypts data that is stored therefore only being readable by people who know how it has been encrypted.
   • Anti virus
     • Detects and removes virusses
   • Firewall
     • Filters between trusted and untrusted networks by using different ports.