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CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

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Optimizing Operating Systems

Maintenance means keeping the performance of an OS from degrading with

time and use. Of course, you don’t just want to keep trouble at bay—you

want to make your systems better, stronger, faster! Anything you do that

makes Windows better than it was before, such as adding a piece of software

or hardware to make something run better, is an optimization.

Installing and Removing Software

Optimizing by installing and removing software is part of the normal life of

any computing device. Each time you add or remove software, you make

changes and decisions that can affect the system beyond whatever the

program does, so it pays to know how to do it right.

Installation Concepts

Installing software in any OS requires consideration of several issues. First,

what are the system requirements? Does the target computer have sufficient

drive space for the app? Does it have enough RAM to run the program well?

(Think back on Chapter 11, “Building a PC,” and systems designed for video

processing for a typical scenario where you’d need to beef up the RAM to

support the software.) Does the version of OS running on the system match

the OS requirements for compatibility with the application?

The methods for installing software have morphed over the years. For a

long time, most software was distributed on some sort of removable media,

such as a floppy disk (from my youth) to an optical disc, such as a CD-ROM

or DVD-ROM. These days, most application software comes from the

Internet, so a network download is the process.

The user account trying to install the software has to have administrative

or root privileges. The installing person could also run the installation process

with elevated privileges, assuming he or she knows the admin/root password.

Finally, whenever installing applications, think about the security

considerations. How will this app affect overall system security? What does

an Internet search on the app reveal as far as potential exploits currently in

use? What is the impact on the computer? Is it more vulnerable to attacks?

Assuming the computer is attached to a local area network, what kind of

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