Tech Journal Week 6

Guiding Questions

• Pick one of these tools available in the System Management console (Task Scheduler, Event Viewer, Shared Folders). Do you think you would find it useful when doing your day-to-day computing tasks? Why or why not?

• Have you ever had to use the Recovery Console to boot your computer? If so, discuss your experience with the tool: Was it easy to use? Were you able to solve the problem?

• What is the usefulness of a tool like Windows Task Manager? Have you ever used this tool in the past, and for what purposes?

Utility Programs

Utility software is for maintenance related tasks. These utilities manage a computer, its devices, and its software.

Examples

• Managing Files

  • File manager works by displaying the file/folder hierarchy. File manager allows users to create, rename, copy, and delete folders and files. However, file managers can only create folders not files. Applications are in charge of making files. Lastly, the final manager chooses the right type of application to open when clicking on a file.

• Viewing images

  • Image viewers allow users to display, copy, and print the contents of a graphical file. It allows users to view images without opening a video editing program.

• Uninstalling programs

  • An uninstaller allows users to uninstall programs and files within the file system.

• Defragmenting disks

  • When data is being stored to the disk, the operating system attempts to store data in a contiguous manner. Sometimes the operating system is forced to stored data to the drive in separate non contiguous sectors. Defragmented attempts to reorganize the hard drive to put sectors for one application next to each other.

• Backing up files and disk.

  • A backup utility allows users to back up files or an entire disk to another storage medium. Typically the files are compressed when they are backed up meaning they take up less space then the original file. However, compressed files can't be used in a compressed form so a restore utility is used to restore the file to it's normal state.

• Virus protection

  • It works by scanning programs or files and comparing the code to known viruses and malware code. This also means an antivirus is as good as its catalog of virus code. If a never before virus is created or the code for the virus is hidden from the antivirus, the software can be ineffective.