Method and system for executing a software application in a virtual environment

• US 7,451,196 B1
• Filed: 12/14/2001
• Issued: 11/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Numecent Holdings Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Streamtheory Incorporated
• Inventors: de Vries, Jeffrey, Zavertnik, Gregory
• Primary Examiner(s): Walsh, John B.
• Application Number:
  US10/023,915
• Time in Patent Office: 2,524 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/542 Intercept
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/544 Buffers; Shared memory; Pipes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/545 where tasks reside in different layers, e.g. user- and kernel-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/133 Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

Method and system for executing a software application in a virtual environment includes a file system hook operatively interposed between a file system manager and a file system driver of the local computer, the file system hook configured to detect a file system call corresponding to a target program and to perform one or more procedures, and an agent procedure executing on the local computer to configure the file system hook for executing the target program. Also provided is a token file corresponding to the target program, the token file including file system overlay information for the target program. The one or more procedures may include accessing data at a server terminal operatively coupled to the local computer via a data network, or at a locally connected CD-ROM drive. Numerous other aspects are provided.

Claims

1. A method comprising the steps of:

providing a token file corresponding to a target program, said token file including file system overlay information for a target program;

using a file system hook operatively interposed between a file system and an operating system of a computer;

intercepting, using the system overlay information, local and remote file system calls associated with the target program;

executing an agent procedure on the computer for configuring said file system hook to locally execute the target program without the target program having been locally installed.

2. A system comprising:

a file system embodied in a computer-readable storage medium;

a file system overlay embodied in a computer-readable storage medium, wherein the file system overlay is associated with the file system and, in operation, a locally executing target program;

a file system manager embodied in a computer-readable storage medium, wherein the file system manager is associated with the file system;

a file system hook module embodied in a computer-readable storage medium, wherein, in operation, the file system hook module utilizes a hook to intercept from the file system manager file system calls associated with the target program, and accesses file and directory structure in the file system overlay associated with the locally executing target program, wherein a first subset of file data identified in the file and directory structure are locally available;

a remote server terminal configured to provide data to the file system hook module, wherein, in operation, the file system hook module receives a portion of a second subset of file data identified in the directory structure from the remote server terminal.

3. A system as in claim 2 further including a virtual file system driver associated with a virtual drive, wherein the target program executes via the virtual drive.

4. A system as in claim 2 further including a registry manager associated with a registry, wherein the target program is associated with the registry manager.

5. A system as in claim 4 further including a registry hook module, wherein the registry hook module is configured to intercept a registry call from the registry manager to the registry.

6. A system as in claim 2 wherein the file system hook module is configured to ignore the file system call and chain to a second file system hook.

7. A system as in claim 2 wherein the file system hook module is configured to process the file system call and return to the file system manager.

8. A system as in claim 2 wherein the file system hook module is configured to call down a hook chain.

9. A system as in claim 2, further comprising a file system driver module embodied in a computer-readable storage medium, wherein, in operation, the file system driver module executes file system calls received from the file system manager.