Utility Software:

Utility software is system software designed to help analyze, configure, optimize or maintain a computer. Utility software usually focuses on how the computer infrastructure (including the computer hardware, operating system, application software and data storage) operates. Due to this focus, utilities are often rather technical and targeted at people with an advanced level of computer knowledge - in contrast to application software, which allows users to do things like creating text documents, playing video games, listening to music or viewing websites. Virus Scanner (Anti-virus) utilities scan for computer viruses:

Antivirus, anti-virus, or AV software is computer software used to prevent, detect and remove malicious computer viruses. There are several methods which antivirus software can use to identify malware or Virus: 1. Signature based detection is the most common method. To identify viruses and other malware, antivirus software compares the contents of a file to adictionary of virus signatures. Because viruses can embed themselves in existing files, the entire file is searched, not just as a whole, but [19] also in pieces. 2. Heuristic-based detection like malicious activity detection, can be used to identify unknown viruses. 3. File emulation is another heuristic approach. File emulation involves executing a program in a virtual environment and logging what actions the program performs. Depending on the actions logged, the antivirus software can determine if the program is malicious or not and then carry out [20] the appropriate disinfection actions.

DEVICE manager
The Device Manager is a Control Panel applet in Microsoft Windows operating systems. It allows users to view and control the hardware attached to the computer. When a piece of hardware is not working, the offending hardware is highlighted for the user to deal with. The list of hardware can be sorted by various criteria. For each device, users can: Supply device drivers Enable or disable devices Tell Windows to ignore malfunctioning devices View other technical properties

Device Manager was introduced with Windows 95 and later added to Windows 2000. In NT-based versions, it is included as a Microsoft Management Console snap-in.

Device driver:
In computing, a device driver (commonly referred to as simply a driver) is a computer program that [1] operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer. A driver provides a software interface to hardware devices, enabling operating systems and other computer programs to access hardware functions without needing to know precise details of the hardware being used. A driver typically communicates with the device through the computer bus or communications subsystem to which the hardware connects. When a calling program invokes a routine in the driver, the driver issues commands to the device. Once the device sends data back to the driver, the driver may invoke routines in the original calling program. Drivers are hardware-dependent and operating-system-specific. They usually provide the interrupthandling required for any necessary asynchronous time-dependent hardware [2] interface.

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 Scanner is a disk space analyzing and management tool for Microsoft Windows operating systems. It displays the disk space usage of any drive or directory in the form of a multilevel pie chart which can be navigated up and down through the directory tree. When the mouse cursor is placed above a pie the program displays which directory the pie represents, how many files it contains and the overall disk space occupied by it. A context menu allows to open the directory inside the Windows Explorer, hide and unhide it from the diagram as well as deleting the pie from the disk either via the Recycle Bin or permanently. Initially released in 1999, it is an early (the first?) example of the sunburst method of visualising disk usage and inspired the KDE package

Archivers output a stream or a single file when provided with a directory or a set of files. Archive utilities, unlike archive suites, usually do not include compression or encryption capabilities. Some archive utilities may even have a separate un-archive utility for the reverse operation. Backup software can make copies 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). Clipboard managers expand the clipboard functionality of an operating system . Cryptographic utilities encrypt and decrypt streams and files. Data compression utilities output a shorter stream or a smaller file when provided with a stream or file. Data synchronization utilities establish consistency among data from a source to a target data storage and vice versa. There are several branches of this type of utility:

File synchronization utilities maintain consistency between two sources. They may be used to create redundancy or backup copies but are also used to help users carry their digital music, photos and video in their mobile devices.

Revision control utilities are intended to deal with situations where more than one user attempts to simultaneously modify the same file.

Disk checkers can scan operating hard drive. 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. In the maintenance of file systems, defragmentation is a process that reduces the amount of fragmentation. It does this by physically organizing the contents of the mass storage device used to store files into the smallest number of contiguous regions (fragments). It also attempts to create larger regions of free space using compaction to impede the return of fragmentation. Some defragmentation utilities try to keep smaller files within a single directory together, as they are often accessed in sequence. Defragmentation is advantageous and relevant to file systems on electromechanical disk drives. The movement of the hard drive's read/write heads over different areas of the disk when accessing fragmented files is slower, compared to accessing the entire contents of a nonfragmented file sequentially without moving the read/write heads to seek other fragments.

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 for the visualization of disk space usage by getting the size for each folder (including sub folders) & files in folder or drive. showing the distribution of the used space. Disk storage utilities File managers provide a convenient method of performing routine data management tasks, such as deleting, renaming, cataloging, uncataloging, moving, copying, merging, generating and modifying data sets. Hex editors directly modify the text or data of a file. These files could be data or an actual program. Memory testers check for memory failures. Network utilities analyze the computer's network connectivity, configure network settings, check data transfer or log events. Registry cleaners clean and optimize the Windows registry by removing old registry keys that are no longer in use.

Screensavers were desired to prevent phosphor burn-in on CRT and plasma computer monitors by blanking the screen or filling it with moving images or patterns when the computer is not in use. Contemporary screensavers are used primarily for entertainment or security. System monitors for monitoring resources and performance in a computer system. System profilers provide detailed information about the software installed and hardware attached to the computer.

Language Translator:
A translator is a computer program that translates a program written in a given programming language into a functionally equivalent program in a different language. Depending on the translator, this may involve changing or simplifying the program flow, without losing the essence of the program, thereby producing a functionally equivalent program. If the translator translates a high level language into another high level language, it's called a translator or source-to-source compiler. Examples include Haxe, FORTRAN-to-Ada translators, CHILL-toC++ translators, PASCAL-to-C translators, COBOL(DialectA)-to-COBOL(DialectB) translators. If the translator translates a high level language into a lower level language it is called a compiler. Notice that every language can be either translated into a (Turing-complete) high level or assembly language. If the translator translates a high level language into an intermediate code which will be immediately executed it is called an interpreter. If the translator translates target/machine code to source language it is called a decompiler. Example: DCC, Boomerang Decompilers and Reverse Engineering Compiler (REC). If the translator translates assembly language to machine code it is called an assembler. Examples include MASM, TASM, NASM and FASM. If the translator translates machine code into assembly language it is called a disassembler. Examples include gdb, IDA Pro and OllyDbg.

Spyware:
Spyware is software that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge and that may send such information to another entity without the consumer's consent, or that [1] asserts control over a computer without the consumer's knowledge. "Spyware" is mostly classified into four types: system monitors, trojans, adware, and tracking [2] cookies. Spyware is mostly used for the purposes such as; tracking and storing internet users' movements on the web; serving up pop-up ads to internet users. Whenever spyware is used for malicious purposes, its presence is typically hidden from the user and can be difficult to detect. Some spyware, such as keyloggers, may be installed by the owner of a shared, corporate, or public computer intentionally in order to monitor users.

Anti-spyware programs (Spyware

scanner)

Many programmers and some commercial firms have released products dedicated to remove or block spyware. Programs such as PC Tools' Spyware Doctor, Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE and Patrick Kolla's Spybot - Search & Destroy rapidly gained popularity as tools to remove, and in some cases intercept, spyware programs. On December 16, 2004, Microsoft acquired the GIANT [7] AntiSpyware software, rebranding it as Windows AntiSpyware beta and releasing it as a free download for Genuine Windows XP and Windows 2003 users. (In 2006 it was re-named Windows Defender). Major anti-virus firms such as Symantec, PC Tools, McAfee and Sophos have also added anti-spyware features to their existing anti-virus products. Early on, anti-virus firms expressed reluctance to add antispyware functions, citing lawsuits brought by spyware authors against the authors of web sites and programs which described their products as "spyware". However, recent versions of these major firms' home and business anti-virus products do include anti-spyware functions, albeit treated differently from viruses. Symantec Anti-Virus, for instance, categorizes spyware programs as "extended threats" and now offers real-time protection against these threats.