UTILITY SOFTWARE

UTILITY SOFTWARE

1. System Optimisation

   • Defragmentation
     • 1) Files are stored on a hard dick in available space.
     • 2) As files are moved, deleted and change size, lots of small gaps begin to appear on the disk. When writing files to the disk, the OS splits files into smaller blocks to fill up the gaps
     • 3) Over time,the disk becomes more and more fragmented. this makes reading and writing files slower as the read/write head has to move back and forth.
     • Defragmentation software reorganises data on the hard disk to put fragmented files back together
   • System clean up: scans and removes files no ;longer needed
   • Compression software: reduces sizes of files to free up space
     • E.g. .zip/.rar

2. Back up programs

   • Backup utilities: stores files and settings externally
   • Full backup = copy of every file is taken
   • Incremental backup = only files created or edited since last backup are taken

3. Security software

   • Encryption software: scrambles data to stop third parties from accessing it
   • Anti-virus software
   • Firewall
   • Spyware detectors: block and delete programs designed to collect personal information