Hello and welcome to another insightful installment of Terminology Tuesday! Where we define some commonly misunderstood or misused computer terms!
Today’s term is application!
Applications, sometimes referred to as apps, are a set of specific programs that are designed to perform a certain task. These come in a quite a few different categories. Some of the most common are word processing, spreadsheet, web browsers, and media players. Chances are that you use many different applications throughout the day. Anytime you surf the web or type a letter, you are using an application. Some specific examples of applications are Microsoft Word, Safari, App Store, and iTunes. All these perform very different, very specialized tasks.
Applications are fairly easy to find and install most of the time. On Apple computers and mobile devices, the App Store is where you can search for any number of apps by category and download them directly to your computer. On any computer with a disk drive, an application may be installed directly from a CD. Other applications may be downloaded from websites, but we do caution you to make sure that the website you are downloading the application from is official. When downloading applications from less-than-reputable websites, viruses and malware may be downloaded in addition to the app. If you have any questions or uncertainties about a download, please ask the experts here at Computer Hardware if what you are downloading seems safe!