User's Manual

Glossary
TuneUp Utilities 2006 99
File name
The complete designation of a file, consisting of the name of the file itself and a
file extension after the dot.
File type association
A logical connection in Windows between a file extension and an application.
This makes it possible for the associated program to start automatically when
opening a file (by double clicking it).
Fragmentation
Normally, all data in a file is saved in consecutive clusters on the disk. But this is
only possible when there is sufficient contiguous free space on the disk. If this is
not the case, individual files are broken up and written to the disk in individual
clusters. Files saved in this manner are called fragmented files. As the disk’s read
head requires more time to seek all of the individual fragments, the loading of
such files takes longer. For this reason, it is sensible to defragment your hard
disk from time to time so that each individual file is saved at a single location.
This is called defragmenting and should be completed at least once per month if
the computer is used on a daily basis.
Frequency / clock rate
The frequency of a processor indicates at how many processing cycles per
second it performs its work. The processor frequency is an important factor in
the overall speed of the computer. The industry has differentiated between
internal and external clock rates since the introduction of the Intel 486DX2.
The internal frequency, also called the CPU frequency, designates the speed at
which commands are executed within the CPU. The more megahertz, the faster
the CPU.
The external frequency is the speed of the front side bus (FSB) and specifies the
speed at which the processor can access the main memory (and the L2 cache, if
present). The speed of the FSB is governed by the motherboard.
Hot key
A special key combination that immediately starts a pre-defined command or
process.
Icon
Icons are pictograms that serve as visual labels in graphical user interfaces and
are used, for example, to open programs.
ISDN
Short for “Integrated Services Digital Network”. ISDN is a digital
telecommunications network that can be used for normal telephone calls, remote
data transmission, faxing and other services such as video conferences. ISDN