UNDEFINED: Chapter 5: System Software

System Software:

Definition:

System software is computer software designed to operate the computer hardware and to provide a platform for running application software.

Basic Types:

- Computer BIOS (basic input/output system)

- Operating System

- Utility Software

Computer BIOS

The BIOS provides a small library of basic input/output functions used to operate and control the peripherals such as the keyboard, text display functions and so forth, and these software library functions are callable by external software.

Operating System

An operating system (OS) is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. Examples of popular modern operating systems include Android, iOS, Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows.

Utility Software

Utility software is system software designed to help analyze, configure, optimize or maintain a computer. A single piece of utility software is usually called a utility or tool.

Utility software categories:

Anti-virus utilities scan for computer viruses.
Backup utilities can make a copy of all information stored on a disk, and restore either the entire disk (e.g. in an event of disk failure) or selected files (e.g. in an event of accidental deletion).
Data compression utilities output a shorter stream or a smaller file when provided with a stream or file.
Disk checkers can scan the contents of a hard disk to find files or areas that are corrupted in some way, or were not correctly saved, and eliminate them for a more efficiently operating hard drive.
Disk cleaners can find files that are unnecessary to computer operation, or take up considerable amounts of space. Disk cleaner helps the user to decide what to delete when their hard disk is full.
Disk compression utilities can transparently compress/uncompress the contents of a disk, increasing the capacity of the disk.
Disk defragmenters can detect computer files whose contents are broken across several locations on the hard disk, and move the fragments to one location to increase efficiency.
Disk partitions can divide an individual drive into multiple logical drives, each with its own file system which can be mounted by the operating system and treated as an individual drive.
Disk space analyzers