Utility Software Flashcards
What does a ‘utility software’ have?
A specific job to do regarding the computer’s operation and performance
Give 4 examples of a SECURITY utility application
Encryption software
Firewall
Anti-virus
Anti-malware
Give 2 examples of a PERFORMANCE utility application
Hard disk defragmentation
Task manager monitor
Give an example of a utility software which improves storage efficiency
Data compression applications
Give 2 examples of a BACKUP utility
System backup
File backup
What do system information and diagnosis utilities do?
Ensures that the rest of the computer continues to work as well as possible
What do encryption utilities do?
Scrambles data in such a way that only a person (or computer) with the correct software key can read it
How does an encryption utility work?
When the file is selected, a password is created and the encryption utility encrypts the data within that file
On a hard disk, what are the different chunks of separated memory called?
Sectors
What does the operation system look for when a file needs to be stored?
Free sectors on the disk. These sectors are rarely next to one another
What does fragmented mean?
If a file is broken up (“fragmented”) across too many separate memory sectors
What happens if a file is fragmented?
It becomes difficult for the hard disk to access all of the pieces of a file, making the computer run slower
What do defragmentation utilities do?
They juggle the contents of memory sectors around to keep files together as much as possible. This ensures that the computer runs quickly and efficiently
What does a compression utility do?
Makes a file smaller in size
Why is making file sizes smaller, by the compression utility, useful?
Less storage space is needed
It is faster to download and upload the file
Better performance is achieved when streaming audio or video files
What are the 2 types of compression?
Lossy
Lossless
What does lossy compression do?
Removes unnecessary data from the file i.e. some data is lost
How does the MP3 file format use lossy compression to make sound files smaller?
It discards some sounds in the original data that you are not likely to hear such as very high or low pitch sound or if it’s too quiet
What image file type uses lossy compression?
JPEG
What does lossless compression do?
It does not remove any information from the file, instead it looks for patterns within the data that allows it to be stored more efficiently
What is lossless compression most commonly used for?
Data files such as text documents
What is a backup?
A copy of your most important data that is stored elsewhere
How often should backups be done, and why?
Regularly, in case of files being damaged by a computer virus, the hard disk suddenly failing, or the computer being damaged from a disaster like a fire or a flood
What 4 things does a backup utility enable you to do?
Set up a schedule to backup automatically on a regular basis - hourly, daily etc.
Specify exactly what and what not to back up
Choose the type of backup you require
Tell it where to back up - online, cloud, external hard drive etc
What are the 2 types of backup?
Complete backup
Incremental backup
What does a complete backup do?
Copies all the data every time
What is an advantage of doing a complete backup?
It is simple to recover the data as it is all in one place
What are 2 disadvantage of doing a complete backup?
Takes a long time to back up
Having enough storage available for multiple copies
What is an incremental backup?
With this method, the first backup is always a complete one, then after that it only backs up files that have changed since the last backup
What is a typical backup schedule?
Do a daily incremental backup then do a full backup every week
What are 2 advantage of doing an incremental backup?
Is very efficient for storage and much faster than doing a full backup every time
Allows you to have number of versions of the same file
What is a disadvantages of doing an incremental backup?
More complicated to recover the data than using a complete backup method
What are the 2 steps, done by utilities, to make sure that the rest of the computer continues to function
Gathering system information
Diagnosis
What do system information utilities do?
Check the current status of the computer and attached devices
What do system information utilities do with the information?
They collect it, but do not do anything else with it
What do diagnosis utilities do?
When the information gathered by system information utilities indicates that there is a problem, diagnosis utilities will try to work out what that problem is, and either fix it directly or prompt the user with possible actions to take
