System Software – Utility Programs and Translators Describe the purpose and use of common utility programs for computers security (anti-virus, spyware protection and firewalls), disk organisation (formatting, file transfer and defragmentation), and system maintenance (system information and diagnosis, system clean up tools and automatic updating)

Utilities Technically the OS is the software that controls and manages the computer system, but most OS’s also include programs called UTILITIES. These are not essential for the computer to work, but they either, make it easy for the user to use it in some way or provide housekeeping functionality.

Main Categorises Security utilities that keep your computer safe from hackers and viruses, Disk organisation utilities that help organise your files into folder, Maintenance utilities that tidy up the disk

Security Utilities This is about keep the computer safe from hazards. This hazards could be: Viruses, Hackers Spyware But keep this is perspective, as the most dangeours thing to a computer is the user, as they are accidentally delete files or put tem in the wrong place!

Anti-Virus Software A computer virus is a software program that is designed to copy itself over and over again and to attach itself to other programs. Viruses do not damage the computer hardware. They affect the data and programs stored on the computer. They can cause an immense amount of time wasting and financial loss for people and businesses. For example, the "Melissa" virus was so effective in spreading itself that many huge corporations had to shut down their email systems until the virus could be contained. The operating system tries to make sure that data is not corrupted by viruses. In order to do this, anti virus software is used.

Anti-Virus There are a number of anti-virus programs available for wiping out  viruses for example Norton, McAfee, Sophos and AVG. The anti-virus software contains a database of known viruses. Every time a file is opened, the anti-virus utility checks the content, looking for hidden viruses against its database. When the utility recognises a virus pattern, it will alert the user, and ask them whether they want to remove the virus and clean the system, or whether they simply want to 'quarantine' the virus. New and more damaging viruses are being written all the time and so to keep up with these new threats, the anti-virus companies provide constant updates to their software. Normally, you log on to the internet and the software will update itself either automatically or after a certain period set by you. There is usually a small annual fee involved for this service, but it is a small price to pay for peace of mind.

Spyware Spyware is a software program, that once installed on your computer, can monitor and collect personal information about your web surfing habits and the web pages that you visit. You are usually unaware that your machine has been infected by spyware and it can sit in the background, collecting information about you and then transmitting it back to the author of the spyware - often advertisers who want to know what you are interested in and what adverts you click on. Spyware may be installed without your knowledge by downloading some shareware or other software that seems to do something useful e.g. a free game or utility. Whilst spyware is normally harmless, it can interfere with your control of the computer in other ways. It can install additional software which redirects the web browser to sites that it wants you to visit. It can also change the computer settings which can result in slow connect speeds and it can prevent you from accessing secure internet services.

Spyware – Key-loggers Key loggers are another form of spyware, but they are not so harmless. The purpose of a key logger is to monitor and store a record of every keystroke made on the computer. This data may then be sent to a remote server without your knowledge. It is specifically looking for user names and passwords used for things such as bank accounts, credit card numbers etc. Computer security software normally includes an anti-spyware section to help detect these malicious programs. You need regularly scan your system for spyware and key loggers and remove them if they are found.

Firewalls A firewall is a utility program (or it can also be a hardware device) that filters the information coming through the Internet connection into your personal computer or into a company's network. Its main aim is to try to stop any attempts by intruders to enter your system through the internet connection. It is set up to allow mainly one way access, i.e. you can go out onto the Internet and access pages, but it checks every data packet that either enters or leaves the computer against a set of rules. If the data coming back is from an unauthorised source then it is blocked. More complicated firewalls allow you to alter the rules. You may have heard people saying, 'I can't get on that site at school because it's been blocked'; that is the firewall in action. All networks and indeed all home PCs should have an active firewall.

Disk Organisation Every 3-6 months you should be “TIDYING” your hard disk. This could be: Formatting Folder structures and moving files Defragging

Disk Formatting Before a hard disk can be used, it needs to be prepared so that it will be able to store files and applications. Disk formatting is the initial part of the process for preparing a hard disk or other storage medium for its first use. FAT32 (file Allocation Table) increases the number of bits used to address clusters and also reduces the size of each cluster. The result is that it can support larger disks (up to 2 terabytes) and better storage efficiency (less slack space). NTFS (New Technology File System) is a proprietary file system developed by Microsoft Corporation for its Windows line of operating systems, beginning with Windows NT 3.1 and Windows 2000, including Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and all their successors to date. NTFS supersedes the FAT file system as the preferred file system for Microsoft's Windows operating systems. NTFS has several technical improvements over FAT Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is also HFS+, but it has an extra mechanism that avoids corruption of the file system when something bad happens, such as loss of power during a write operation.

Partitions As part of the disk formatting procedure, 'partitions' are created. These are what you or I know as 'drives'. A disk might be partitioned into multiple drives, for example, C:, D:, E:, S: etc. Each partition or drive will have a different purpose. C: might be where the application files are stored. D: might be the drive used for external storage media, e.g. USB stick, S: might be the shared drive on your school network. The disk formatting also includes setting up an empty file system which will allow folders and files to be created and deleted in the normal way. These tasks are carried out by a disk formatting utility. 

File Transfer One of the basic things you need to be able to do is to create, move, copy and delete files on the computer system. If you were to use a command line user interface to do this, you would type the instructions directly into MSDOS. For example, the command for copying a file looks like C:> copy myfile.txt newfile.txt This is actually quite a lot of work in terms of typing correctly and unless you are an expert at using command line interfaces, you probably wouldn't know how to write the instructions required. A much more convenient way, and the way that most of us probably do it, is to use a graphical file handling utility such as 'Explorer' in Windows. This utility shows files graphically as icons within folders along with the file name other details such as file size, file type and date modified can also be viewed. You can manipulate the files in a number of ways: drag and drop using the mouse will allow you to move a file right clicking on a file and choosing an option from a menu e.g. move, copy, cut, delete highlighting the file and choosing an option from the menu bar on Explorer's window highlighing a file and using a keyboard shortcut such as Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V

Defragmentation After a while your computer begins to run more slowly. One reason for this is because over time, files and folders on the hard disk become fragmented or scattered. When you try to run an application, a large number of files often need to be accessed. Instead of always being stored next to each other on the hard disk platters, the files can become scattered, sometimes ending up at opposite ends of the disk. The hard disk then has a lot of work to do in order to locate everything that is needed to run your application. Very occasionally, the files can become so fragmented that it might cause a program to stop running.  

To overcome this problem, it is a good idea to regularly defragment or "defrag" your hard disk. All computer systems have a defragmenter utility pre-installed. When it is run, it will reorganise the hard drive by putting pieces of related data back together so that files are stored contiguously (next to each other). This may also free up more space on the hard disk. Defragging a disk can take many hours, especially if you have a lot of applications installed and a lot of files saved on the hard disk.

System information and diagnosis The operating system keeps a record of all the hardware and details of the operating system such as make, clock speed, number of processors, version numbers and so on. It does this by using a 'system information' utility. This is very useful for people when they need to know the details of the system, perhaps to see if an application they are considering getting will be compatible. Diagnostics These utilities will test the system to see if there are any problems. For example an utility called 'chkdisk' or ‘Ccleaner’ on a windows system will run a number of tests on the hard disk to see if it working properly.

System Clean-up tools Over time some parts of the system become cluttered with old installation details, temporary files, dead shortcuts and so on. A good disk cleanup tool will search for and delete files which are no longer needed. One of the benefits of doing this is that large amounts of storage space is released. This can then be used for other programs or files. A system cleanup tool will search the computer for settings which are no longer needed or for programs which are slowing down the computer. Running this utility regularly can help to improve the performance and speed up the boot-up time so that the computer starts up much faster.

Automatic Updating This is a very important utility that automatically searches the internet for updated versions or patches for critical software such as the operating system or the web browser. If an update is found, it will be automatically downloaded and installed and you will be prompted to restart your machine in order to apply the patch. Automatic updates help to ensure that your system is protected from possible threats or security loopholes that could be exploited by malicious programs or people in order to gain access to your system. Automatic updates can also be applied to fix any known software bugs in the system.