Page 83 - Computer

System Utilities

System utilities are software used to maintain and configure of the computer system.
Some system utilities are shipped with the operating system and can offer basic Computer Science
functionalities. These include, for example, defragmentation tools, disk formatting
utilities, and system restore utilities. Another set of utilities are third-part utilities,
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which are not shipped with the operating system but are used to improve the
performance of the system. Examples and uses of some utility programs are shown
in Table 4.3.

Table 4.3: Examples of types of utility programs and their uses

Type of utility Functions
Disk cleaner Clean or remove unnecessary files from a hard disk
Disk defragmenter Remove fragments from hard disk volumes so that the
computer runs faster and more efficiently.

Backup Archive data to protect it from accidental loss, for example, in
case a hard disk drive fails
Data recovery Recover a file or information that has been deleted.

Anti-viruses Protect or recover programs and data against viruses and
remove viruses from a computer .
Data compression Reduce the size of data to save storage and transportation
space (bandwidth)

Device drivers
Device drivers are software that allows a specific device to communicate with the
computer’s operating system. Devices that need drivers are those whose features
are not familiar to the operating system. For example, a printer, a scanner, a mouse,
a keyboard, a USB device, a network card, and a sound card all need drives when
connected to a computer for the first time.

Application software

Application software is software that handles a specific user task, such as writing a
report. Some examples of application software are word processors, spreadsheets,
databases, presentation software, and web browsers.

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