Introduction
Utility software is the supporting software that helps you maintain the performance of your computer system. In Windows, most of the system software you want can be found on the Microsoft support site. Sooner or later, no matter how well indexed or virus free your system is, you are going to need the help of one or two utilities Windows system “Tools”. Sometimes they are referred to as idisk defragmenters, antivirus, data compressors, disk cleaners, file managers and more programs that you probably never even knew existed. What the software utilities Windows uses does is they maintain the basic infrastructure of the system, which is why most people hardly ever understand the purpose of the program.
History
For instance, Microsoft disk defragmenter is a utility program that helps delete the files that are broken or damaged. When you store, write or make files, some of the data is improperly stored or broken, or the deleted file’s fragments are left behind in the memory. A disk defragmenter helps you delete those files by storing all of them in a continuous directory, and eliminating any fragments of broken files. This helps build space in your memory and speeds up your computer. For you to understand, the details of the process are not necessary, but you now understand how system utilities work and what they do. There are other similar utilities Windows uses that are not easy to understand.
Features
Windows is one of the most popular and common operating systems among PC users. People encounter system errors and faults on a daily basis, which is why Microsoft built a support site for its Windows users. Now every time you come up with an error and report that error to windows, after analyzing the problem, they will send you a recommendation and free utilities to help you solve your problem. Most of these programs are just driver utilities Windows uses, and also other drivers that support programs allowing your hardware to function. Whenever you plug in an unknown device to the computer, your computer will automatically search for drivers to run it. If it cannot find it on your system, it will search for it online. Such programs are also considered hardware utilities. The most commonly used utilities Windows uses are related to disk compression, antivirus and disk storage. Everyone probably uses utilities such as WinZip or WinRar, which are the best data compression utilities for your computer system. Of course, some of the system tools are so simple that you do not need to be worried about how they work. Disk burners are an excellent example of this.
Tips and comments
Other than maintenance, some utilities help you optimize your computer’s performance. Prefetch optimizer for example, helps you reduce the time your system takes to boot the PC. It may sound complicated but the program is very user friendly and it easily guides you through the configurations that allow you to install the utilities Windows uses. Windows applies this user friendly concept to all its system tools. This is because people today that use and need system utilities are not just computer geeks and techs, but everyone from teens to their late fifties are using PCs and thus, Windows needs to make every part of the OS easy to use and maintain. Even Windows 7 is extremely user friendly and does most of the work automatically, like installing new internet connections, setting up desktop backgrounds and timely cleaning your storage disks. All of these processes require utility software and most of them are already installed with Windows 7 or are downloaded during the system update.
