[INTERNAL] add PreferenceUtils

Change-Id: I0363a076cdc2c21fd715c4d55746f9b5fc3faf8d
Reviewed-on: http://saros-build.imp.fu-berlin.de/gerrit/1713
Tested-by: Jenkins CI
Reviewed-by: Franz Zieris <zieris@inf.fu-berlin.de>