DT13 Digital Technology Systems

WJEC GCSE
Digital
Technology

Unit 1:

The digital world

DT13:

Utility Software

2

Starter

Using the images below, identify these different types of utility programs. The first letter of each one has been provided for
you.

A

B

C

D

E

F

Starter

Using the images below, identify these different types of utility programs. The first letter of each one has been provided for
you.

ANTI-VIRUS
SOFTWARE

BACKUP SOFTWARE

COMPRESSION
SOFTWARE

DEFRAGMENTATION
SOFTWARE

ENCRYPTION
SOFTWARE

FIREWALL SOFTWARE

5

REVISION MNEMONIC

UTILITY SOFTWARE

REMEMBER….

ABCDEF

Lesson Objectives:

Curricular goal:

•Systems software is responsible for the maintenance of a computer system
and ensuring the user can interact with the system. It comprises of two
parts: Operating System and Utility Software.

•Identify the purpose and describe the characteristics of a wide range of
utility programs:
•Anti-virus software

•Backup software

•Compression software

•Defragmentation software

•Encryption software

•Firewall software

6

Lesson components:

Anti-virus software

Key Questions:

What is the purpose of anti-virus software?

What will it do when an infected file has been identified?

How does it work?

Identify some disadvantages to using anti-virus software.

Context:

Windows provide an in-house anti-virus program called
Windows Defender. It provides free protection however, it

does have limitations such as not being able to scan a
specific folder. Most users opt for external options, using

reputable brands like Norton and Kaspersky.

Anti-virus software

Key Questions:

What is the purpose of anti-virus software?

It is designed to protect your computer from viruses that can

infect your computer or steal confidential data.

What will it do when an infected file has been identified?
They are stored in a quarantine folder so they can’t infect

other files. The user will need to delete these files.

How does it work?

Once installed you can run a quick scan, a full scan or create

a scheduled can. Some can scan specific files and folders.

Identify some disadvantages to using anti-virus software.

Needs to be updated/renewed.

Limited detection techniques. Anti-virus might not detect other
types of malware therefore not providing all-round security.

Context:

Windows provide an in-house anti-virus program called
Windows Defender. It provides free protection however, it

does have limitations such as not being able to scan a
specific folder. Most users opt for external options, using

reputable brands like Norton and Kaspersky.

Backup software

Watch the video to identify the two types of backup and describe how they work.

Backup type:

Backup type:

How does it
work?:

How does it
work?:

Backup software

Watch the video to identify the two types of backup and describe how they work.

Incremental backup

Backup type:

Full backup

Backup type:

How does it
work?:

This procedure will only backup files that

have been modified since the last

restoration point.

How does it
work?:

This procedure will backup every file
stored on the system, regardless to

whether it’s been modified since the last

restoration point.

Backup software

Watch the video to identify the two types of backup and describe how they work.

Backup type:

Backup type:

How does it
work?:

How does it
work?:

Backup software

Watch the video to identify the two types of backup and describe how they work.

Differential Backup

Backup type:

GFS

Backup type:

How does it
work?:

All files that have been created or

changed since the last full backup are

copied. Requires the last full backup and
just the one differential backup to restore

How does it
work?:

Grandfather backups data yearly, Father
backs up data monthly and son backs up
data daily. In some cases, the grandfather

backup is help offsite whereas father

backup is stored locally (on site)

Backup software

Key Questions:

What is the purpose of backup software?

Why would a full backup be a useful method?

Context:

Windows provides users with a systems restore. The

operating system will do a backup at certain periods and
create a restore point. This allows users to roll back to a

previous point in time.

Why would an incremental backup be a useful method?

Backup software

Key Questions:

What is the purpose of backup software?

Designed to create duplicate copies of files so they can be

distributed or retrieved in the case of data loss.

Why would a full backup be a useful method?

It might be a safer and quicker option for small businesses

who might not have enough files stored for it to be

considered a time consuming process.

Context:

Windows provides users with a systems restore. The

operating system will do a backup at certain periods and
create a restore point. This allows users to roll back to a

previous point in time.

Why would an incremental backup be a useful method?

This might be useful because only a small number of files

have changed which means less memory space is required to

run the backup and it should take less time.

Compression software

Key Questions:

What is the purpose of compression software?

How does compression work?

Look at this quote:

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is

no path and leave a trail.”

Identify any duplicate words you can see in the quote above.

Compression software

Key Questions:

What is the purpose of compression software?

Designed to reduce the size of one or more files in order to

take up less disk space.

How does compression work?

They use an algorithm to check the data associated with the
file in question and remove redundant data. However, this is
not to the detriment of the file, all the original contents can

be restored.

Context:

19 words in the original quote

89 characters with spaces

3 duplicate words (go, where, path)

So this can be compressed to 16 words and 78 characters.

Look at this quote:

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is

no path and leave a trail.”

Identify any duplicate words you can see in the quote above.

Go, where, path

Defragmentation software

Key Questions:

What does it mean when the hard disk becomes

fragmented?

What impact does a fragmented hard disk have on the

performance of a computer?

What is the purpose of defragmentation?

How does defragmentation work?

Let’s
watch
the
video
first…

Defragmentation software

Key Questions:

What does it mean when the hard disk becomes

fragmented?

Data is divided into multiple chunks of data that are stored
on the hard drive. This means they’re not grouped together.

What impact does a fragmented hard disk have on the

performance of a computer?

Because there will be more attempts required to access a file

on the hard drive, it will longer to find it thus making it

slower.

What is the purpose of defragmentation?

It’s designed to reduce the amount of fragmented files on a

hard drive.

How does defragmentation work?

It re-organises related data files and puts them in the same

physical location.

Context:

It ensures that related data is grouped together. This
means video files could be grouped together and even
free space would be grouped together. As a result, a
defragmented hard disk will look like the one above.

Only hard disks drives can be defragmented because it
has moving parts where SSD doesn’t and therefore they
can use particular chips to store data in a related order.

Encryption software

Key Questions:

What is the purpose of encryption software?

How does encryption work?

What is asymmetric encryption?

What is symmetric encryption?

Encryption software

Key Questions:

What is the purpose of encryption software?

Designed to make data unreadable to users that should have

no access to this information.

How does encryption work?

It uses ciphers to substitute letters and symbols with each
other. This means the data becomes scrambled and only

readable if the user has a key. There are two types: Public

key and Private key.

What is asymmetric encryption?

Asymmetric encryption uses the public key of the recipient to

encrypt the message.

What is symmetric encryption?

Symmetric encryption uses a private key to encrypt and

decrypt an encrypted message.

Firewall software

Key Questions:

What is the purpose of firewall software?

How does firewall software work?

What are some of the disadvantages associated with using

firewall software?

Firewall software

Key Questions:

What is the purpose of firewall software?

Firewall software monitors what data is attempting to enter

your computer or network.

How does firewall software work?

Firewalls will scan data packets for any malicious code or
spot any potential threats that have been spotted before.
Once this has been identified as a security risk, the firewall
will prevent this from entering the network or reaching your
computer. In some cases, it will prompt the user to warn them

this might be a suspicious source, providing them with the

choice on what to do with this data.

What are some of the disadvantages associated with using

firewall software?

Constantly running a firewall in the background can consume
processing power and RAM which can impact performance.

It can be very restrictive, which may even stop users

performing simple and harmless operations.

Review

Describe two utility programs that can be used for security

(4 marks)

Utility program 1 (2 marks)

………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………

Utility program 2 (2 marks)

………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………

Describe one utility program that can be used for

optimisation (2 marks)

………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………

Review

Describe two utility programs that can be used for security

(4 marks)

Utility program 1 (2 marks)

Firewall software can be used to monitor any incoming data

because it will prevent potential attacks entering the network

or computer.

Utility program 2 (2 marks)

Encryption software can be used to scramble data to make it

only readable by users who have a key.

Others answers could include:

Security:
Anti-virus
Backup

Optimisation:
Compression

Describe one utility program that can be used for

optimisation (2 marks)

Defragmentation can be used to re-arrange files or parts of

a file and group them together in one physical location. As a

result, this means the hard disk drive will not have to work as

hard to find the file required.