Method for Restoring Software Applications on Desktop Computers

• US 20120323857A1
• Filed: 08/27/2012
• Published: 12/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Reese, Michael T., Coe, Dustin R., Brehm, Eric A, Flenoy, Jeff T., Wong, Kirk K.
• Granted Patent: US 9,213,534 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/674
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/30 Monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation

Abstract

An automated method is provided for restoring software applications installed on a desktop computer. Information identifying an inventory of software applications resident on the computer is stored locally in a file on the computer. In response to a request to restore applications, the inventory is compared to a master library of known software applications, and those applications in the inventory that are found in the library are selected and downloaded onto the computer to complete the restoration process.

Claims

1-20. -20. (canceled)

21. A method for restoring software applications previously installed on a computer comprising the steps of:

storing information representing an inventory of applications installed on the computer;

generating and maintaining a library of known software applications comprising said previously installed applications including providing restoration rules imposed by an administrator for said software applications including an allowed restoration version for a respective application;

receiving a request to restore one or more of said previously installed applications on the computer, and

restoring the applications in the stored inventory that are present in the library.

22. The method claim 21 further comprising restoring those applications according to an automated process, said automated process comprising receiving the request and restoring the applications.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein restoring the applications further comprises detecting the software applications stored on the computer by examining said inventory.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of detecting the applications is performed using predefined scripted elements.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein restoring the applications further comprises:

comparing the software applications in the stored inventory with the applications in the library, and

selecting those applications in the inventory that are found in the library.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein selecting the applications further comprises choosing a specific version of the selected application, and restoring the applications is performed by restoring the specific version of the application.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein restoring the application further comprises checking the library for updated versions of the applications in the stored inventory, and restoring the updated versions.

28. The method of claim 21, wherein the information stored representing an inventory of applications is stored in a file located in the desktop computer.

29. A method for restoring software applications previously installed on a computer, comprising:

storing information representing an inventory of applications installed on the computer, said previously installed applications determined by applications present in said computer at a selected point in time prior to the restoring process, said inventory stored in a local file located in the computer;

providing a library of previously installed applications;

receiving a request to restore one or more applications on the computer; and

restoring those applications in the stored inventory that are present in the library.

30. The method of claim 29 further comprising matching applications in the inventory with applications in the library.

31. The method of claim 29 further comprising checking the library for updated versions of the applications previously installed on the computer and restoring those application with the updated versions on the computer.

32. A method for restoring software applications installed on a computer, comprising the steps of:

storing information representing an inventory of the software applications installed on the computer, said inventory stored in a local file located in the computer;

providing a library of previously installed software applications and restoration rules including an allowed restoration version for a respective software application;

receiving a request to restore one or more of said previously installed software applications on the computer, said restoring comprising determining said previously installed software applications by reading said inventory from said local file and replacing said previously installed software application with a corresponding previously installed version or later version from said library according to the restoration rules; and

restoring the software applications in the stored inventory that are present in the library.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the storing information representing an inventory of the software applications installed on the computer further comprises generating a database.

34. The method of claim 33 further comprising querying the database to detect the software applications previously installed on the computer.

35. The method of claim 34 further comprising comparing the software applications detected in querying the database with the software applications in the library.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein restoring the software applications is based on the comparison of the software applications detected in querying the database with the software applications in the library.

37. The method of claim 34 further comprising placing each of the software applications in a wrapper having a header containing information identifying the software application.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein querying the database further comprises reading the contents of the headers for each of the software applications in the inventory.

39. The method of claim 32, wherein restoring the software applications further comprises selecting a specific version of a software application in the stored inventory.

40. The method of claim 32 further comprising checking the library for updated versions of the applications in the inventory.

36-1. The method of claim 32, wherein querying the database, comparing the software applications, and restoring the software applications are carried out according to an automated process.