Unit 2 D1

Expand on your notes for Task 3 explaining the purpose of different software utilities to explain how each can improve the performance of a computer system. You need to cover:


Security Virus Protection and Firewalls



Anti-virus software is very important in order to keep your computer secure and to a high performance. Viruses can cause real harm to a computer such as removing or destroying vital data, slowing down a computer or shutting down a computer. Anti-virus software’s are used identify potential threats to a computer system and block them; however some viruses encrypt themselves to be different every time, making it impossible to detect.


A firewall is another form of security that can be added onto a computer. Firewalls act as a barrier to keep destructive elements out of a network or a specific computer. They are configured to block or prevent unauthorised access to a network. They work as filters for your network traffic by blocking incoming packets of information that are seen as unsafe. like anti-virus software it is very important therefore to make sure that you've got protection from the kind of things like malicious software so that the performance of the network or computer can remain as high as possible.


Clean up tools for removal of cookies/internet history/defragmentation

While cookie files are quite small, they can still build up and slow down your system performance. When too many cookies accumulate, those unneeded files can bog down the system and result in it running more slowly than it should. It is important to take the time to delete the cookies to increase the speed and performance of your web browsing software. 

Removing all internet history will increase the general performance of a computer; it will be able to run faster because there is less data stored on to the system. It is also useful to do this if you are on a public computer as you can remove all information related to you from the system. This can be especially important if it is financial information.

Fragmentation makes your hard disk do extra work that can slow down your computer. Disk defragmentation rearranges fragmented data so your hard disk can work more efficiently. Disk defragmenter runs on a schedule but you can also defragment your hard disk manually or change the times in which it does this. It puts files that have been fragmented back together so that they can be read faster.

Drive Formatting

Over time a computer’s hard drive may experience malfunctions due to wear and tear, viruses, or other programs that bog down the PC. To maintain and resolve performance issues, reformatting the hard drive annually is advisable. After formatting a hard drive and re installing the operating system, software program conflicts or glitches should disappear, and the computer’s performance will improve to a large extent.  

Unit 2 M1

Unit 2 P3

Unit 2 P2

Operating system 
The operating system on the computer is the core software that is installed on all new computers so when you first load up the computer all that is on there will be the operating software this is what interacts with your hardware and programs data & user's actions To create a User Interface' so human can interact with this system. Examples of these are;GUI (Graphical User Interface) Windows 98 Multi-user operating system, Windows 2000.

Security

Every operation system will have preferences to the style of security it will provide and it will be able to control how protected you are and what you are protected from for example the security can protect you in different ways like there could be a section that specifically protects you from online threats and another section that makes sure your hardware is safe. The way the antivirus works is it scans downloads and attachments for viruses, and by running in the background when the user is surfing the Internet. Should the user come across a virus, the program will warn the user and give her the option of getting rid of it before it infects.

File Management
The operation system will have a specific way it will provide you options to manage were your files are and how to access them for example you can add folders and sub folders so you can be precise were your files are for example in IT my computer files are organised by having a IT folder and inside that is the unit folder and inside that is the work this helps because this way i can access the work that i want with ease without looking through hundreds of files looking for one this is all because of the operating system.

Device driver

A device driver operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer for example if you have a peripheral such as a printer and the computer is not compatible with the printer the computer will not be able to detect the printer this means you will need to update the drivers that is why most peripherals come with a software disk that will make the printer usable so the computer will detect it.

Machine and peripheral management 

Without the operating system you would not be able to manage your drivers so the operation system could not boot the correct driver to allow the peripheral to have access to the computer because of being able to manage your drivers you can tell if you every need to update a driver to allow a peripheral to work.

Unit 2 P1