System Software & Application Software (Edexcel IGCSE ICT)

Purpose of application & system software

What is software?

• Software is the set of programs that control the hardware; they live on the computer system but cannot be physically touched

• Software can be broken down in to two categories:

  • Application software

  • System software

What is application software?

• Application software (abbreviated 'apps') is software chosen by a user to help them carry out a specific task

• Application software is installed on top of system software and is user-chosen to best suit industry requirements

• Common categories of application software include:

  • Word processing: creating and editing text documents

  • Spreadsheet: organising and analysing data in a grid format

  • Database management systems: storing, retrieving and managing data in databases

  • Control/measurement: uses sensors to measure and control a system

  • Video editing: creating and modifying video files

  • Graphics editing: creating and modifying images

  • Audio editing: creating and modifying sound files

  • Computer-Aided Design (CAD): designing and modelling objects in 2D or 3D

What is system software?

• System software is software essential for the operation of a computer system

• Without system software, a user has no starting point for giving a computer instructions

• System software gives users a platform to run applications and carry out tasks

• Essential services carried out by system software include:

  • Compilers: translating high-level programming languages into machine code

  • Linkers: combining object files into a single executable program

  • Device drivers: controlling hardware components and peripherals

  • Operating systems: managing the computer's resources and providing a user interface

  • Utilities: tools for maintaining and optimising the computer's performance

Utility software

What is utility software?

• Utility software is software designed to help maintain, enhance and troubleshoot/repair a computer system

• Utility software is designed to perform a limited number of tasks

• Utility software interacts with the computers hardware, for example, secondary storage devices

• Some utility software comes installed with the operating system

• Examples of utility software and their function are:

Defragmentation (maintain)

• Defragmentation software groups fragmented files back together in order to improve access speed

• As programs and data are added to a new hard disk drive, it is added in order, over time as files are deleted this leaves gaps

• As programs and data are added over time, these gaps get filled and data becomes fragmented

• Defragmentation can only used on magnetic storage

  

Compression (enhance)

• Compression reduces the amount of secondary storage required by performing an algorithm on the original data

• Lossy compression physically removes data from the original data to reduce its size, the original file can not be re-created

• Lossless compression uses mathematics to order data more efficiently reducing its size, the original files can be re-created as no data is lost

Encryption (enhance)

• Encryption is the process of scrambling data using an algorithm from plain-text into cipher-text in order to make it unreadable to users without the master key

• Encryption software enhances the security of the computer system and keeps data safe

Task manager (troubleshoot/repair)

• Task manager is software that is built into the operating system to allow users to monitor system resources in order to help troubleshoot potential problems

• Task manager gives system information such as:

  • Processes

  • Performance

  • App history

  • Start-up apps

  • Users

  • Services