Mechanism to dynamically update a windows system with user specific ...

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(12) United States Patent

George et al.

(io) Patent No.: (45) Date of Patent:

US 7,024,471 B2 Apr. 4, 2006

(54) MECHANISM TO DYNAMICALLY UPDATE A WINDOWS SYSTEM WITH USER SPECIFIC APPLICATION ENABLEMENT SUPPORT FROM A HETEROGENEOUS SERVER ENVIRONMENT

(75) Inventors: Randy George, Austin, TX (US);

Brian Keith Howe, Round Rock, TX
(US); Chakkalamattam Jos Paul,

Austin, TX (US)

(73) Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US)

( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 653 days.

(21) Appl. No.: 09/735,588

(22) Filed: Dec. 12, 2000

(65) Prior Publication Data

US 2002/0107945 Al Aug. 8, 2002

(51) Int. CI.

G06F15/177 (2006.01)

(52) U.S. CI 709/222; 709/203; 709/220;

709/228

(58) Field of Classification Search 709/200,

709/203-205, 220-224, 227-228, 231; 717/168-178 See application file for complete search history.

(56) References Cited

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A method, apparatus and program for updating client computers with user specific application enablement are provided. The invention involves creating a component control file on a network server, which defines the actions to be performed to install an enablement component needed to run an application on a client and creating an installation control file which contains a list of the enablement components needed to run the set of applications that have been assigned to a user. The enablement components are changes to the operating system's configuration. When a user logs onto a client computer, a mechanism in the client reads the user's installation control file from the server and then installs the necessary enablement components on the client operating system, if those components are not already installed. In one embodiment, the user receives a prompt before the components are installed, in case the user does not want to use the entire set of assigned applications.

22 Claims, 3 Drawing Sheets

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OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Alistair et al., "Windows 2000 Active Directory, Chapter 8, Profiles and Group Policy Primer", O'Reilly Books, Jan. 2000, pp. 1-24. oreilly.com/catalog/win2000ads/chapter/ ch08.html, retrieved Jul. 12, 2005.

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* cited by examiner