1. Format Scandisk Defragmentation Antivirus Compression Software
Utility Software
Format
Scandisk
Defragmentation
Antivirus
Compression Software

2. What is Utility Software?
Utility software comes with the operating system
It is used to analyse, configure and maintain the computer.
The utility software has many different functions some of which are the following;

3. Formatting

4. What is Formatting?
Before storage device can be used by the computer they need to be formatted
When a device is formatted, all data on it is removed and a disk filing system is created
A disk filing system is used to create ‘addresses’ on the storage device to keep track of the stored files
A commonly used file system in Windows is FAT (File Allocation Table).

5. Example of Formatting
BEFORE
Lets say that a new pen drive is going to be used
Before it is formatted the device would be empty
Once it is formatted a structure is created as shown in the example on the right
AFTER
Disk Sectors

6. After the device is formatted
Once your device is formatted it is ready to be used
Every time you save something on your device it will be saves on one of the disk sectors
Storage Device
File A
Block 1
Block 2
Block 3

7. Formatting a Drive in Windows
Connect the storage device
Open My Computer
Right click on the device
Choose Format

8. The format dialog opens Here the user can change various settings,
Press start
Formatting will begin
WARNING : remember that all data is lost!

9. Scandisk

10. Corrupt File System
The file system on our computers could become corrupted
This happens when our computer freezes
Incorrect turning off of the computer
power cuts
System crashes
This could result in incorrect folder structure or even corrupted files
In order to fix this a scandisk is used

11. What is a Scandisk?
As we said before the scandisk is used when out files system has for some reason be corrupted
The scandisk is used to try and repair the errors being faced
The scandisk also tries to restore the hard disk back to its original state

12. How to use Scandisk Double click on My Computer
Right-click on the Drive
Choose Properties
Choose the tab Tools
Click on Check Now (found under Error Checking)

13. …
This opens up a small dialog window allowing the user to check for any problems
You should tick the both boxes which will try to fix any problems.
Then click on Start

14. Defragmentation

15. Why Files change
We have many different files on our hard disk and these files change frequently;
Copying
Moving
Installing
Uninstalling
Files can get split into several small parts to be saved across the hard disk. (Fragmented)

16. Fragmentation
Fragmentation as we said before is the splitting up of files
The different parts of the file are saved on different sectors of the hard disk
Fragmentation makes loading time much longer as the computer must find all the different parts of the file

17. Example Assume that 2 files are fragmented on the hard disk
The computer would have to look for all the blogs and defragment them to access the file

18. Defragmentation Defragmentation is the opposite of fragmentation
Defragementation keeps all the parts of the file together so the computer would find them easily
This is done by saving all the different parts close together on the hard disk

19. Example
The file of before would no be saved differently thanks to defragmentation

20. How to Defragment your Files
Open My Computer
Right-click on the desired drive to be defragmented
Choose Properties
Choose Tools
Choose Defragment Now…

21. … The application window will then appear
Choose the drive to be defragmented
click on Analyze (this will tell you if your drive needs defragmentation)
Click Defragment
In the above example you can see that defragmentation is required because there are a lot of fragmented files shown by the red lines

22. Antivirus

23. What is a Virus?
A virus is a small program that is designed to do harm to the computer
The most common effect of a virus is the deletion or corruption of files
Viruses are usually downloaded from the Internet through s, web-pages or shared between users
Once a virus infects a computer it starts its working on harming your computer

24. What is an Antivirus?
In order to make the virus stop infecting the computer we would need an antivirus
An antivirus has a list of all known viruses
If one of the listed viruses tries to enter the computer the antivirus will block it
If the virus still enters the computer the antivirus can detect it and get rid of it

25. Why do we Update our Antivirus?
Keeping our antivirus up to date is extremely important
In today’s world viruses are created every minute so we would need to update our antivirus to list the new viruses created
If we don’t update our antivirus it will not be aware about the new virus, hence our computers will not be protected

26. Examples
Some of the different antivirus applications include the following;
AVG -
Avast -
Avira -
Microsoft Security Essentials - ntials/

27. Compression Software

28. What is Compression Software
Compression Software is used to decrease the size of files
Also if you have a large number of files it will combine them into one single file.
So if you have 22 files which you want to send by , instead of attaching them one-by-one, you could compress them and send them all as one file

29. How do we Compress Files?
We can compress files by using Windows compression software
Select all the files
Right-click on any file
Choose Send To…
Choose Compressed Folder

30. Work Look up additional information about what we spoke about today
Create a short write up of 2 to 4 pages
Choose one of the following topics
Format
Scandisk
Fragmentation/Defragmentation -
Antivirus and viruses
Compression Software