The operating systems, and utility programs that perform system maintenance and protection tasks such as error correction and backup are
called? *

System softwares.

Explanation:

A software can be defined as a set of executable instructions (codes) or collection of data that is used typically to instruct a computer how to perform a specific task and to solve a particular problem.

Basically, softwares are categorized into two (2) main categories and these are;

I. Utility software.

II. System software.

The operating systems, and utility programs that perform system maintenance and protection tasks such as error correction and backup are called system softwares.

An operating system is a system software pre-installed on a computing device to manage or control software application, computer hardware and user processes.

This ultimately implies that, an operating system acts as an interface or intermediary between the computer end user and the hardware portion of the computer system (computer hardware) in the processing and execution of instructions.

Some examples of an operating system on computers are QNX, Linux, OpenVMS, MacOS, Microsoft windows, IBM, Solaris, VM etc.

On the other hand, a utility software can be defined as a software application or program designed to add more functionality to a computer system, as well as to improve its performance efficiently. Some examples of commonly used utility tools in computer are file and folder backup tools, file management, antivirus, hard disk diagnostics, registry cleaner, network performance monitor, screensavers etc.