Today's focus

1. Utility Software and System Tools
2. New Trends in Software: AI, Cloud, and Low-Code

🎯 Learning Objectives

• ✅ Define utility software and explain how it differs from application software.
• ✅ Categorize utilities (file, disk, security, backup, monitoring) with business examples.
• ✅ Identify the major trends shaping modern software, including the impact of AI.
• ✅ Explain cloud computing and the Software as a Service (SaaS) model.
• ✅ Define low-code and no-code development platforms.

What is Utility Software?

Utilities are system software that maintain, protect, and optimize the computer. They are not the programs users open to write a report (that is application software).

• Keep the OS and disks healthy
• Reduce security risk
• Recover from failure (backup)

File Management Utilities

• File managers: Explorer, Finder — copy, move, properties
• Compression: ZIP, 7z — smaller transfers
• Search: find files by name or content

Disk Management

• Cleanup: temp files, cache
• Defragmentation: HDDs only — not needed for SSDs
• CHKDSK / Disk Utility: file-system errors
• Partitioning: divide a drive (advanced; lab caution)

🎬 Defragmentation, and why SSDs skip it

Security Utilities

• Antivirus / anti-malware (definitions must stay current)
• Host firewall
• Password manager (better than a notebook)

Utilities reduce risk; they do not replace user caution (phishing).

Backup and Recovery

• File backup: selected folders
• System image: whole disk for restore
• Cloud backup: off-site copy (also a confidentiality decision)

3-2-1 idea: three copies, two media, one off-site — exam-friendly mnemonic.

Monitoring and Optimization

• Task Manager / Activity Monitor: CPU, RAM, disk, network
• Startup programs: too many slow boot
• End a hung process — last resort, save work first

🩺 Activity: Diagnose the Slow PC

In pairs, name the utility you would use first, then reveal.

1. A laptop takes four minutes to boot, and 15 apps are set to start automatically. Answer: disable unneeded startup programs (Task Manager, Startup tab)
2. Windows warns that drive C: has only 2 GB free. Answer: Disk Cleanup, then uninstall unused apps
3. The browser is frozen and says "Not responding". Answer: end the task in Task Manager, after saving work in other apps
4. An old office PC with an HDD takes ages to open files. Answer: defragment the HDD (never an SSD)
5. Pop-ups keep appearing and the browser's home page has changed by itself. Answer: run an antivirus / anti-malware scan

Business practice

• Standardize antivirus and backup on lab/office PCs
• Built-in Windows tools vs paid suites: cost vs features
• Nepal: mobile data + cloud backup — bandwidth and privacy

Key Takeaways

• Utilities are system software for health, security, and recovery.
• Do not defragment SSDs; do keep backups.
• Task Manager is the first check when a PC “feels slow.”

Three Forces Shaping Software Today

The world of software is constantly evolving, driven by three key trends:

Trend 1: Artificial Intelligence (AI) & ML

🔍 Instead of just doing what it's told, software can now learn and adapt.

🤖 AI at Work: Real Cases

• Spam filtering: Gmail uses machine learning to block spam and phishing. Google says it stops more than 99.9% of it before it reaches inboxes.
• Fraud detection: Banks' AI systems flag a card payment that doesn't match your usual pattern, such as a sudden purchase abroad, and may block it.
• Generative AI: ChatGPT launched in November 2022 and reached an estimated 100 million users in about two months. Tools like Microsoft Copilot now write drafts, summaries and code.

AI can be confidently wrong (so-called "hallucinations") and can copy bias from its training data, so a human still checks the output.

Trend 2: Cloud Computing & SaaS

Inside a data centre: where 'the cloud' lives

☁️ Three Ways to Rent the Cloud: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS

From IaaS to SaaS, the provider manages more and you manage less.

The Shift: From Owning to Renting Software

Software used to come in a box

Practical Application: SaaS in Nepal

The SaaS model is powering many businesses and services you use daily in Nepal.

Trend 3: Low-Code / No-Code

The goal is to empower "citizen developers"—people with business knowledge but little to no programming experience.

🎬 A working app in under a minute, no code

Summary: Key Takeaways

• 🎯 AI and ML are making software smarter by enabling it to learn and predict.
• 🎯 Cloud Computing has paved the way for the SaaS subscription model, changing how we access and pay for software.
• 🎯 Low-code/no-code platforms are empowering more people to create custom applications without needing to be expert programmers.

📊 For Discussion

Image & Video Credits

Images

• "Monitoring", "The 3-2-1 backup rule", "Who manages what?", "Compression", "Spot the phish" and "AI learns from data": diagrams made for this course (IT231)
• "BalticServers data center": BalticServers.com, CC BY-SA 3.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BalticServers_data_center.jpg
• "Software Boxes": Atomic Taco from Seattle, WA, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Software_Boxes_(12935437583).jpg

Videos (YouTube)

• PowerCert Animated Videos, "Disk Defragmentation Explained - Defrag Hard Drive - Speed Up PC" (3:01 to 4:32)
• Microsoft Mechanics, "Build your first Power App from data in seconds" (1:24 to 2:26)