Editing Utility software (section)

{{Short description|Programs to support computer infrastructure}}

'''Utility software''' is a program specifically designed to help manage and tune system or application software. It is used to support the computer [[infrastructure]] - in contrast to [[application software]], which is aimed at directly performing tasks that benefit ordinary users. However, utilities often form part of the application {{em|systems}}. For example, a [[batch job]] may run user-written code to update a database and may then include a step that runs a utility to back up the database, or a job may run a utility to compress a disk before copying files.

Although a basic set of utility programs is usually distributed with an [[operating system]] (OS), and this first party utility software is often considered part of the operating system, users often install replacements or additional utilities.<ref>{{cite news |title=Non-Opec (advertisement) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZIfqFFpyXo8C&pg=PA3 |access-date=May 20, 2019 |agency=Computerworld |date=Sep 3, 1979}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Mendelson |first1=Edward |title=Fix What Ails Your PC |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XrdgwdYfGrUC&pg=PA60 |access-date=May 20, 2019 |agency=PC Magazine |date=June 8, 1999}}</ref> Those utilities may provide additional facilities to carry out tasks that are beyond the capabilities of the operating system.

Many utilities that might affect the entire computer system require the user to have elevated [[Privilege (computing)|privileges]], while others that operate only on the user's data do not.<ref>{{cite web |title=Linux ifconfig command |url=https://www.computerhope.com/unix/uifconfi.htm |website=Computer Hope |access-date=May 20, 2019}}</ref>