Systems, Utilities, and Application Software

System Software

System software makes the computer's hardware resources available to applications in an orderly fashion. There are two general categories of systems software: operating systems and utilities.

The first category is operating systems. This type of systems software controls the hardware. Examples include:

  • displaying things on the screen
  • sending a file to the printer
  • moving the mouse cursor around the screen in response to the user moving the mouse cursor.
  • receiving keystrokes from the keyboard

Popular operating systems include Microsoft Windows, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.

The second category is utilities. This type of systems software refers to separate programs that perform technical tasks, such as:

  • scanning the computer for malware or viruses
  • indexing and finding data on a hard disk
  • defragmenting a hard disk
  • adjusting the screen display

Application Software

Users interact with application software to perform tasks. On smartphones and other mobile devices, this type of software is called an "app." Examples of application software are depicted by the following commonly recognized icons:

An image with several software icons:Google, Internet Explorer, QuickTime, Skype, Photoshop, Windows Media Player, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Source: Jason Howie, Flickr

Check Your Knowledge

Choose the best answer.
Question 1
For a computer to calculate the average of two numbers, it needs _________ .
a flow chart
pseudo code
a software program
an algorithm
Question 2
iOS is _________.
operating system software
hardware
an application
vendor brand
Question 3
Operating systems provide which basic services?
manage the computer's hardware resources
accept and execute commands and requests
manage and execute programs
all of the above
Question 4
In Windows, if you press the PrintScreen button on the keyboard to take a snapshot of the screen and later paste that snapshot in the Paint application, it is done by _______________
both the Paint application and the Windows operating system
the Windows operating system
the monitor
the Paint application
Question 5
What do you call software programs that you download from an app store and install on your smartphone?
dictionary
application software
information
antivirus software

Licenses and Attributions

Smartphone Shopping Apps by Jason Howie on Flickr is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. UMGC has modified this work and it is available under the original license.