Utility Software

Question 1

What does a ‘utility software’ have?

Answer 1

A specific job to do regarding the computer’s operation and performance

Question 2

Give 4 examples of a SECURITY utility application

Answer 2

Encryption software
Firewall
Anti-virus
Anti-malware

Question 3

Give 2 examples of a PERFORMANCE utility application

Answer 3

Hard disk defragmentation

Task manager monitor

Question 4

Give an example of a utility software which improves storage efficiency

Answer 4

Data compression applications

Question 5

Give 2 examples of a BACKUP utility

Answer 5

System backup

File backup

Question 6

What do system information and diagnosis utilities do?

Answer 6

Ensures that the rest of the computer continues to work as well as possible

Question 7

What do encryption utilities do?

Answer 7

Scrambles data in such a way that only a person (or computer) with the correct software key can read it

Question 8

How does an encryption utility work?

Answer 8

When the file is selected, a password is created and the encryption utility encrypts the data within that file

Question 9

On a hard disk, what are the different chunks of separated memory called?

Answer 9

Sectors

Question 10

What does the operation system look for when a file needs to be stored?

Answer 10

Free sectors on the disk. These sectors are rarely next to one another

Question 11

What does fragmented mean?

Answer 11

If a file is broken up (“fragmented”) across too many separate memory sectors

Question 12

What happens if a file is fragmented?

Answer 12

It becomes difficult for the hard disk to access all of the pieces of a file, making the computer run slower

Question 13

What do defragmentation utilities do?

Answer 13

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

Question 14

What does a compression utility do?

Answer 14

Makes a file smaller in size

Question 15

Why is making file sizes smaller, by the compression utility, useful?

Answer 15

Less storage space is needed
It is faster to download and upload the file
Better performance is achieved when streaming audio or video files

Question 16

What are the 2 types of compression?

Answer 16

Lossy

Lossless

Question 17

What does lossy compression do?

Answer 17

Removes unnecessary data from the file i.e. some data is lost

Question 18

How does the MP3 file format use lossy compression to make sound files smaller?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

What image file type uses lossy compression?

Answer 19

JPEG

Question 20

What does lossless compression do?

Answer 20

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

Question 21

What is lossless compression most commonly used for?

Answer 21

Data files such as text documents

Question 22

What is a backup?

Answer 22

A copy of your most important data that is stored elsewhere

Question 23

How often should backups be done, and why?

Answer 23

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

Question 24

What 4 things does a backup utility enable you to do?

Answer 24

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

Question 25

What are the 2 types of backup?

Answer 25

Complete backup

Incremental backup

Question 26

What does a complete backup do?

Answer 26

Copies all the data every time

Question 27

What is an advantage of doing a complete backup?

Answer 27

It is simple to recover the data as it is all in one place

Question 28

What are 2 disadvantage of doing a complete backup?

Answer 28

Takes a long time to back up

Having enough storage available for multiple copies

Question 29

What is an incremental backup?

Answer 29

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

Question 30

What is a typical backup schedule?

Answer 30

Do a daily incremental backup then do a full backup every week

Question 31

What are 2 advantage of doing an incremental backup?

Answer 31

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

Question 32

What is a disadvantages of doing an incremental backup?

Answer 32

More complicated to recover the data than using a complete backup method

Question 33

What are the 2 steps, done by utilities, to make sure that the rest of the computer continues to function

Answer 33

Gathering system information

Diagnosis

Question 34

What do system information utilities do?

Answer 34

Check the current status of the computer and attached devices

Question 35

What do system information utilities do with the information?

Answer 35

They collect it, but do not do anything else with it

Question 36

What do diagnosis utilities do?

Answer 36

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