Unit 1 Task 3

Task 3: purpose of different software utilities

Security/Anti-virus software

Anti-virus software is one of the most vital softwares in a computer. Certain websites contain malicious software that can put a virus on your computer. Anti-virus software are programmes that alert the user of the computer whenever the computer has picked up a virus. Most of these anti-virus softwares also have the ability to remove the viruses without a problem. However, some viruses are particularly hard to get rid of. My preferred anti-virus programme is Windows Security Essentials. Clean up tools generally just help the computer run faster and smoother because it helps to get rid of any unwanted/unused programmes that may be slowing down the computer.

Removal of cookies

Faster Performance: While cookie files are quite small, they can still build up and slow down your system performance. When too many cookies are allowed to accumulate, those unneeded files can bog down the system and cause it to run more slowly than it should. By taking the time to delete the cookies and temporary Internet files from your computer, you can increase the speed and performance of your web browsing software.

More Disk Space: Sufficient hard drive space is an important consideration for computer users, and deleting cookies on a regular basis will free space on your hard drive. When you start to run low on hard drive space, you may notice a decrease in performance and an increase in the number of system crashes. That is because the operating system will use hard drive space to mimic physical memory, and if sufficient space is not available, the performance of the computer will suffer. Clearing that hard drive space by deleting your cookies can increase the performance of your computer.

Enhanced Security: While many cookies are harmless, others can be used to track your every move on the Internet. Businesses often use these tracking cookies to study consumer behavior, but many computer users consider them an invasion of privacy. By setting your web browser to delete cookies each time you close your browser, you can thwart these tracking attempts and reduce the risk of a security breach.

Defragmentation: A defragmented drive improves system performance, reduces battery power consumption for laptops (less work for the drive, remember) and increases the hard drive life.

Clean up tools/removal of history/cookies and defragmentation

Clean up tools are programmes that are designed to free up disk space on a computer's hard drive. “Disk Cleanup” is an example of one of these programme’s. This is on windows. History is the list of things you have done on the internet. Some people may want to delete their history. It is possible to do this. On google chrome, the shortcut to your history is CTRL+H.Clean up tools, removal of cookies and defrag all make the computer perform faster and run smoother.

Drive formatting

Hard disks, which are the primary storage devices on your computer, need to be formatted before you can use them. Formatting a disk means configuring the disk with a file system so that Windows can store information on the disk. Hard disks in new computers running Windows are already formatted. If you purchase an additional hard disk to expand the storage of your computer, you might need to format it.This helps the performance of your computer system because it means that it improves performance because it wipes the data from and old OS install so the old files don’t corrupt the new OS install. Having a "clean" drive also improves loading speeds because it doesn’t have to figure out which files to boot with.