UNIT 2 TASK 3 (P3)

Produce notes explaining the purpose of different software utilities. The presentation should contain screen shots or images and has to cover:

• security virus protection and/or firewalls
• clean up tools for removal of cookies and/or internet history and/or defragmentation
• drive formatting

Software Utilities

Software utilities are programs that is made to help analyse, configure, optimize and maintain your computer. It focuses on the computers internal hardware like the operating system and the software and data storage's.

Security Virus Protection: Security on a computer is assuring that the data that is stored on the computer is secured and cannot be read or be taken control of by someone who doesn't have the authorization to do so. The security measures involve data encryption and passwords.Virus protection is a software that is designed to prevent harmful malware from getting into the computer and damaging it. They have a range of utilities like anti-spyware and anti-malware along with the anti-virus protection. They can also have an anti-spam, anti-phishing, file protections, PC optimization and firewall.

Firewall:  A firewall can be found at the network gateway server and it protects the resources of a private network from users outside of the network. It works closely with a router and examines each network packet to find out whether to forward it to the network. It also works with a proxy server that can make network requests on behalf of the workstation users.It is often installed in specially designated computers to separate the network so it cannot get any incoming requests through the private network.

Clean up Tools: Clean up tools or Disk Cleanup Tool helps clean up and delete any unnecessary data or files that your computer doesn't need. By using this tool you can delete these files safely. On windows it can be found on the My PC page and right clicking the hard drive icon, by doing this you can:

• Delete temporary files - (Internet or Windows)
• Empty the recycle bin
• Delete installed programs that you no longer use
• Delete any Windows components that you are no longer using.

Internet History: Whenever you go onto the internet the computer saves a copy of all the pages that you have visited whilst you were on it. There are some programs that can prevent the history from being recorded and most computers and systems will allow you to delete the history on the computer. There can also be external programs that can save copies of the pages you have visited on an out of computer archive.

Defragmentation: Over time the files and folders on the computer's hard drive can break down or become fragmented, and when this happens the files and folders become disorganized or misplaced. This can cause the computer system to run and process slowly. By defragmenting the computer the files and folders are organised and will improve the PC's performance.

Drive Formatting: Hard drives need to be formatted before you use them. Formatting the drive helps Windows or any other operating system store information. Hard drives in new computers are already formatted but if you buy an external hard drive you may need to format it.