What are Utility Programs?

Utility programs help manage, maintain and control computer resources. These programs are available to help you with the day-to-day chores associated with personal computing and to keep your system running at peak performance.

Some examples of utility programs include:

• Virus scanning software
• Backup software
• Scandisk
• Disk defragmenter

Virus Scanning Software are utility programs designed to protect your computer from computer viruses. Virus scanning software is critical to uses, due to the number of computer viruses (small computer programs created to disrupt and destroy computer files and/or operating system software).

Virus scanning software scans your disk each time you insert it into a computer at Alverno. If you receive a warning that there is a virus suspected on your disk - contact the lab assistant to help you eliminate the virus. If you own your own computer, you should have a good virus scanning software package installed. Remember - virus scanning software needs to be updated on a regular basis (usually monthly). Updates insure that your virus scanning software will protect you from the most recent viruses. Virus scanning packages come with directions on how to receive updates to your software!

Backup software is software that assists you in backing up your files and even the entire computer hard drive. It is important for you to back up your files regularly (see the File Management Tutorial for more information). If you own your own computer, you should think about how to backup your valuable data on your hard drive. At Alverno, the server that houses your Home Folder is backed up regularly!

Scandisk is a utility provided with Windows computers. Scandisk scans your disks to see if there are any potential problems on the disk, such as bad disk areas. Since disks are magnetic media, all disks, including your hard drive can be corrupted.

Disk Defragmenter software assists you in keep reorganizing your disk drives. After files are saved, deleted and resaved again, the disk can become fragmented --- available space is in small blocks located throughout the disk. Disk defragmenters gather those free spots and put them together to enable you to continue to save your data in the most efficient manner.

What is a User Interface?