Utility

As a utility or utility (from English utility software ) are computer programs called the operating systems or application software support with additional functions. As part of an operating system, it is part of the system software .

Utility programs are one category in the classification of computer programs (software) by type, but can themselves also be divided into subcategories. Most modern operating systems have pre-installed utilities that are more or less integrated into the operating system and often only run on a certain version of an operating system. Some utilities also run as a service (also a background process , usually called a daemon on Unix systems ).

Features and other details

Some of the functions that utilities perform include:

• View and edit simple text files ; these are text editors , but not word processing programs
• Accessibility ( English Accessibility )
• Defragmentation of a file system
• Printer management, etc. a. Configuration of printers and spoolers for print jobs
• Scheduling and execution control for tasks of stacking or background processing
• Disk management
• Information about hardware, operating system and running processes; z. B. Process manager or diagnostic programs
• Configure the hardware and the operating system
• Converting of file formats
• Copy , sort, back up and restore files
• Network management
• Statistics and billing that determine the utilization of the hardware or the user fees
• Administration of users

To the subject

The following paragraph is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

See talk page.

The term utility is controversial. Some users flatly reject it as a vague phrase or an overly literal translation of the English service program . Previously completely uncommon, from the end of the 1990s it was mainly found in Microsoft publications and was adopted by many media. It lost its popularity in the mid-2000s and has now become rare again.

See also

• Bot
• Client-server model
• Software agent
• Toolkit

Individual evidence

1. ↑ utility program. In: ITWissen.info. DATACOM Buchverlag GmbH, March 28, 2017, accessed on February 6, 2019 . 
2. ↑ openSUSE: Packaging categories for desktop menus. (Wiki) In: openSUSE. SUSE LLC, openSUSE Contributors & others, February 18, 2013, accessed February 6, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Desktop Menu Specification. In: Desktop Entry Specification. freedesktop.org, August 20, 2016, accessed on February 6, 2019 (English, Version 1.1). 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Utilities. (Wiki) In: openSUSE. SUSE LLC, openSUSE Contributors & others, February 20, 2013, accessed February 6, 2019 . 
5. ↑ Markus Franz: Mac OS X: Useful utilities and functions. Away from iTunes and Co. In: Netzwelt.de. netzwelt GmbH, March 28, 2011, accessed on February 6, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Utilities. In: Windows Support. Microsoft, accessed February 6, 2019 .