Unit 2.1 Task 5 D1

Computer security virus protection.

Computer protection defends the computer from dangerous viruses. Computer viruses are software programs that are made to go from one computer to another. What they do is mess with the computer's operations. A virus may corrupt or delete data on your computer. They might even delete everything on your hard disk. Viruses can be disguised as funny images, audio or video files. They are usually spread through downloads on the internet. When a computer virus has gotten into your computer, it is crucial that you keep all of the antivirus protection programs up to date as this prevents further infection. The anti-virus software checks for unapproved people who are attempting to access the computers data.


A firewall is either a software program or segment of hardware and it's made to help keep hackers, viruses and worms out. It is vital that you turn on a firewall to stop these things from getting into your computer and this allows your computer to perform at its best at all times. It also keeps the memory from distorting. Firewalls also create a barricade around computers that protects it and that are connected to the internet. This means the user can control which specific software is allowed to push data in and out of the system. Without firewalls and anti-virus protection the computer will be vulnerable to such viruses that will delete and manipulate files saved on the computer, slow down the computers speed and can also make the computer the crash.

How they can improve the performance of a Computer System
Firewalls and anti-virus software provide the essential protection when on the internet and it prevents the computer system from harmful programs and further harm. A firewall and anti-virus software can improve the performance of a computer system easily. This is because it just simply stops all hackers and viruses from getting through to the system and causing bugs which will slow down the computer and can manipulate data. This protection help's the computer to keep its speed when loading and will also help to keep the users files and data from the danger of being corrupted.


Clean up tools. 

When certain programs are being ran on the computer leave small programs called cookies on your computer. The owners of these cookies, collect the data and sells it to anyone who wants it, a cookie cleaner removes these cookies. Cookies are used to keep a record of user information and when returning to a web site there is no needed to retype your user name, password and other information that hardly changes. The reason for removing cookies is that if someone was to hack into your computer or a another computer that you had been using, your data will not still be on that website from which you have entered personal information. The cookie cleaners delete this and helps to prevent this from happening.

Defragmentation is the space on your hard drive starts to fill-up when you save a file. Small amounts of space becomes available when files are deleted. This may mean that some files cannot be saved and this is because the space needed is now unavailable. Clean-up tools can be used to clean the files which makes more space to become available for the user. Improving the performance of your computer system is the purpose of defragmentation. It also creates a maintenance routine for a PC. This includes defragmentation that improves the lifespan of a hard drive as well as its performance speed.

How they can improve the performance of a computer system

The removing cookies can improve the performance of the computer by freeing up hard drive space because having enough hard drive space is important. Running low on hard drive space creates a decrease in performance and increases the number of crashes that will happen. This happens because the operating system uses hard drive space to copy memory. If the hard drive space is cleared by deleting the cookies it can make the performance of your computer a lot better.

Defragmentation improves your computer's performance. Fragmentation makes the hard disk work harder and this can decrease the speed of your computer.  A disk defragmenter will stop fragmentation doing any more harm and will also improve the computers performance. Disk defragmentation is the process which reduces the amount of fragmentation. It does this by arranging the information of the device which is used to store files. This then makes it easy to copy and paste etc.

Drive formatting.

In order for storage media to be seen by the computer it has to be formatted. There are two stages that have to be carried out. The first is physical formatting and this tests the surface by scanning for faults and also setting aside the parts that cannot be used anymore. The second one is logical formatting and this prepares the disk by setting up a file system which then explains how files and folders will be stored and accessed. Drive formatting is used to prepare the hard drive for its initial use. This can be with a new hard drive for your computer or just re-formatting an old one. The drive formatting process tests the disk to make sure that all sectors are working properly. Re-formatting a hard drive will delete all bugs and viruses that have corrupted the system.

How can Drive Formatting improve the performance of a Computer System

Performance normally increases because all system files are in a working state. Hard drive utility applications can sometimes clean and repair these files. However, the easiest way to increase performance is to do a complete format of the hard drive and re-install all necessary files. Computer viruses and other destructive software do not always make themselves visible to the user. Viruses can be very harmful to a computer's overall performance and  virus scanners and other programs are not always successful but reformatting a hard drive deletes all files on a computer and this included the harmful ones which then returns the system to its best performance. Computers run faster and more efficiently when more room on the hard drive is available this means that formatting the drive will increase the computer's performance in terms of data storage as well as performance.