METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GRYPHING A DATA STORAGE MEDIUM
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- providing a storage medium having a pre-written plurality of installed soft assets that include a plurality of installed programs and an operating system, the storage medium also having directory data having entries indicative of locations of the soft assets and registry data having entries used by the operating system to properly execute each of the plurality of installed programs;
connecting the storage medium having the pre-written plurality of installed soft assets to an end-user information-processing device;
receiving selection indications specific to an end user that distinguish a customized first subset of the installed soft assets to be kept from a second subset of the installed soft assets not to be kept; and
automatically subtracting the second subset of the installed soft assets from the storage medium before an initial availability of the device to the end user such that after the second subset is subtracted and the storage medium is connected to the device, the device includes the first subset of installed soft assets substantially ready to use.
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for obtaining a storage medium with a deeply customizable set of installed content. Soft assets (e.g., programs, songs, videos, etc.) that form the content are selected from among a much larger set of preinstalled soft assets previously stored on storage media, such as disk drives. In some embodiments, based on a user'"'"'s selections, the non-selected assets are permanently erased from a storage medium, while the remaining assets are available as installed (wherein substantially no further processing is required to install them). In some embodiments, a new device uses the storage medium to provide its user with a fully functional device without the need to separately install the soft assets from a plurality of sources (e.g., from program-distribution CDROMS and the like). Some embodiments include the storage medium having the soft assets installed, and including a program that elicits selections from a user and erases non-selected assets.
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Citations
38 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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providing a storage medium having a pre-written plurality of installed soft assets that include a plurality of installed programs and an operating system, the storage medium also having directory data having entries indicative of locations of the soft assets and registry data having entries used by the operating system to properly execute each of the plurality of installed programs;
connecting the storage medium having the pre-written plurality of installed soft assets to an end-user information-processing device;
receiving selection indications specific to an end user that distinguish a customized first subset of the installed soft assets to be kept from a second subset of the installed soft assets not to be kept; and
automatically subtracting the second subset of the installed soft assets from the storage medium before an initial availability of the device to the end user such that after the second subset is subtracted and the storage medium is connected to the device, the device includes the first subset of installed soft assets substantially ready to use. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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6. A method comprising:
mass-customizing a plurality of individual devices by;
loading all of the plurality of individual devices with a common set of installed soft assets that include a plurality of installed programs and an operating system, each one of the plurality of individual devices also having directory data having entries indicative of locations of the soft assets and registry data having entries used by the operating system to properly execute each of the plurality of installed programs, and after loading all of the plurality of devices with the common set of soft assets, then transforming differing subsets of the installed soft assets from an installed state into an erased state on each one of the plurality of individual devices. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 34, 35, 36)
- 11. A computer-readable medium having a plurality of soft assets in an installed state, wherein the soft assets include a plurality of installed programs and an operating system, the computer-readable medium also having directory data having entries indicative of locations of the assets and registry data having entries used by the operating system to properly execute each of the plurality of installed programs and a computer program stored thereon for execution on a computer, to cause the computer to execute a method comprising transforming the state of a subset of the soft assets to an uninstalled state including removing entries from the registry data otherwise usable by the operating system to properly execute each of a subset of the plurality of installed programs.
- 18. A new article of manufacture comprising an information-processing appliance having a selected set of installed soft assets available in a substantially ready-to-use state and residual indicia of non-selected assets in an erased state, wherein the information-processing appliance includes an operating system, and also having directory data having entries indicative of locations of the installed assets and registry data having entries that are used by the operating system to properly execute each of the plurality of installed assets and that include registry metadata that enables functionality of the selected set of the installed soft assets with the operating system.
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25. An apparatus comprising:
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a storage medium; and
means, operatively coupled to the storage medium, for subtractive installation of soft assets on the storage medium. - View Dependent Claims (26)
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- 27. A method comprising subtractive installation of soft assets from an information-processing appliance, wherein the information-processing appliance includes a storage medium holding the soft assets, wherein the soft assets include a plurality of installed programs and an operating system, the storage medium also having directory data having entries indicative of locations of the assets and registry data having entries used by the operating system to properly execute each of the plurality of installed programs, and wherein the subtractive installation includes generating a superset of installed soft assets, storing a copy of the superset of installed soft assets on the storage medium, receiving selection indications specific to an end user that distinguish a customized first subset of the installed soft assets to be kept from a second subset of the installed soft assets not to be kept, and automatically subtracting the second subset of the installed soft assets from the storage medium before an initial availability of the device to the end user such that after the second subset is subtracted and the storage medium is connected to the device, the device includes the first subset of installed soft assets ready to use.
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37. A method for distributing a selected set of installed digital assets to a specific end-user comprising:
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a) collecting a plurality of supplied digital assets;
b) installing the collected plurality of digital assets and creating a data structure on a master storage medium such that the data structure contains the installed digital assets;
c) intertwining the installed digital assets with an operating system such that the installed digital assets are functional with the operating system;
d) storing a copy of the data structure onto each one of a plurality of individual storage devices;
e) selecting one of the individual storage devices that contain the data structure subsequent to the storing of the copy of the data structure onto each one of a plurality of individual storage devices;
f) obtaining selection data that distinguish the selected set of the installed digital assets, which are to be retained, from others of the installed digital assets, which are not to be retained;
g) removing from the selected individual storage device the others of the installed digital assets that are not to be retained based on the selection data such that the selected set of the installed digital assets that are to be retained are in the device substantially ready-to-use and functional; and
h) delivering the selected storage device to the specific end-user.
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Specification