Articles tagged with: 'utility software'

Utility software is a broad ranging section of the guide, dedicated to a small group of useful programs which you don't always need for everyday work, or that are useful supplementary software to the programs that you do use frequently.

The utility programs are usually small in size, and simple to understand and use, primarily because they focus on one specific task, such as file archiving.

Windows only: Frequently, downloadable files from the Internet, or attachments to emails, are in compressed archive format. Having a file compression and archiving utility program is therefore an essential tool.

Not only can you use this type of utility to decompress files you receive, but you can also use it to package (and reduce the size of) a selection of your own files that you want to send to others, conveniently and safely.

Igor Pavlov has written a simple open source program that has become a favourite amongst Windows users.

Java is a programming language developed by Sun Microsystems Inc. By using a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) for each operating system, programmers can, at least in theory, develop software which will then run on any operating system that has a JRE available.

In addition to being necessary for a Java program to work, the JRE can also adds functionality to your browser, via applets embedded in a web page. Java also extends the functionality of the OpenOffice.org office suite.

Apart from advising you on choosing from the enormous amount of software available, and showing you how to install, and uninstall the software, the guide also provides pragmatic information on using the programs.

The goal of these tutorials is to provide you with just enough knowledge to make you reasonably competent in the shortest time. They also serve as a basis to become proficient in using one or more of the programs, should you wish to invest further time on them, by offering pointers to more detailed information available on the Internet.

Windows only: This tutorial will show you how to create a compressed archive file, and how to extract the contents of a compressed archive file. The guide's choice of file compression and archiving utility is 7-Zip, an open source program, by Igor Pavlov.