Utility software

Utility software is software that helps manage and tune system (optimization) or application software. It is used to support the computer infrastructure in contrast to application software which is used by and directly benefits end users. A utility is a program that can be classified as utility software.

Although a basic set of utilities 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 additional utilities. Those utilities may provide additional facilities to carry out tasks that are beyond the capabilities of the operating system utilities.

Often, a user must be authorized for elevated privileges to use a utility since it may affect other users on the system.

This section is a taxonomy of kinds of utilities.