Patent ID: 7228542

Claim:
A processor-implemented method for dynamically creating a customized multi-product software installation plan in order to facilitate a concurrent installation of a plurality of software applications on a computer, the method comprising: displaying textual descriptions of the software applications; interactively and graphically selecting at least some of the textual descriptions of the software applications to be installed; wherein the selected textual descriptions of the software applications to be installed provide different textual installation plans; displaying textual descriptions of the components of the selected software applications; interactively and graphically selecting at least some of the displayed textual descriptions of the components of the software applications; displaying textual descriptions of features of the selected components; interactively and graphically selecting at least some of the displayed textual descriptions of the features of the selected components; collecting user information in terms of a user's installation preferences for the selected textual descriptions of the software applications, components, and features; automatically creating the customized installation plan as a textual, non-executable plan, based on the collected user's installation preferences using dynamic links; and wherein the customized installation plan is customizable to the user's preferences, and provides textual, non-executable installation instructions of the selected software applications, to enable a selective, manual installation of the selected software applications using the customized textual installation plan as a single point access that simulates the installation plan of a single software application.