Utility Software

Utility Software

1. Malware (Malicious software) is any software that does something you don’t want, such as stealing your information or sending spam without your consent. Viruses are a type of malware that copies itself into other programs. Modern viruses/malware are designed to be very hard to spot. If your computer is infected, you’re very unlikely to know about it.

2. Since malware is designed to be hard to spot, Antivirus software is needed to detect and remove it. Antivirus software contains a database of malware “signatures” that it looks for in files and applications on your computer. When new malware is discovered, its signature is added to the database, and an update is sent out to the antivirus software. New malware is being created every day, so antivirus software must be kept up to date to be useful. Antivirus software that has expired/not update is completely useless.

3. Cryptographic utilities are programs that encrypt data Encrypted data is data that can’t be read by anyone without the information required to decrypt it There are many encryption systems, some of which require biometric data (fingerprints etc) to decrypt.

4. Sometimes data is lost by accident – a file may be deleted or overwritten by mistake Sometimes data is lost to physical damage – a hard disk may become faulty Data recovery software will attempt to recover deleted or damaged data (or as much

5. Disk Formatting: When we load a file from disk (magnetic or SSD), how does the computer know what part of the disk contains the relevant 1s and 0s? There are various systems for organising files involving index tables and sectors to ensure the file can be found quickly. The system used is called the disk’s format. Disk formatting software sets the disk up to use a particular format by creating the index tables and sectors.

6. Fragmentation: Magnetic disks are prone to file fragmentation. This is where that data that makes up a file is stored on different parts of the disk. Part of the file may be in the middle of the disk, another part may be on the outside. This causes slowdown because the read head has to move across the disk to find the different parts.

7. Disk Defragmenting: A defragmenter re-arranges all the data on a disk to place all the data from a single file in the same part of the disk, reducing the read time. Defragmenters are un-necessary for SSDs, as they have no moving parts.

8. File compression is using mathematical algorithms to store data using less space. For example: aaaaabbbcccccccdddd could be stored exactly as it is, and require 19 bytes (1 byte per character) Or it could be stored as 5a3b7c4d, which contains the same information, but requires 8 bytes. Real compression algorithms are way more complex than this, but do the same job. If you can compress your files by 50%, then you can fit twice as much data on your drive before it fills up.

9. Disk Partitions: When a disk is formatted, it can be split into partitions. Partitions show up in the operating systems as separate disks, even though they’re on the same physical device. For example, you could create a separate partition for your files and the operating system – this way you could erase and re-install the operating system without affecting your files on the other partition

10. The clipboard is the area of memory where data is stored that has been copied using ctrl-c, so it can be pasted later Clipboard managers keep copies of items that have been previously put there to allow you to paste from multiple copies. In windows, you can access the clipboard manager by using win-v instead of ctrl-v

11. System profiles are the settings and configuration of an operating system that a particular user likes By creating and saving a profile, it means that their setup can be transferred to a new computer It also means that other users can have their own profiles, and the system will switch between them depending on who is using the system.

12. File managers allow the user to copy, move, create and delete files and folders Some also include options to encrypt or compress the files

13. Archives: When data or files are no longer in regular use, they can be archived Archiving is making a copy of files on a different system to free up space on the main system Software exists to manage archiving of old software to ensure primary systems don’t get clogged