Patent ID: 6282709
Filing Date: 2001-08-28
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
In a computer system containing stored software programs, a method for checking the software programs comprising:accessing a software component definition file including, for at least one software program on the computer system, (a) an identifier of the at least one software program and (b) a server address for a server containing possible updates for a component of the at least one software program;selecting via a user input a program from the component definition file;downloading a file from a remote server at the server address, the file comprising a list of software components corresponding to the selected program;selecting at least a first software component from the list of software components from the downloaded file; andchecking the selected first software component to determine whether said first software component is stored on the computer system, said checking comprising at least one of:comparing file size, time and date stamp of said first software component and a corresponding software component stored on the computer system,comparing a specified string in said first software component with the specified string in a corresponding software component stored on the computer system; andcomparing a version resource contained in said first software component with the version resource of a corresponding software component stored on the computer system; andupdating the selected program, substantially independent of an execution of the selected program, based on a result of the checking.