Patent ID: 7310775

Claim:
A method for a first computer system to recover component files, said method comprising: packaging one or more desktop components into one or more self-contained desktop files; transmitting the self-contained desktop files from the first computer system to one or more secondary computer systems over a computer network, wherein the secondary computer systems are server computer systems that provide the self-contained desktop files to one or more client computer systems, and wherein at least one of the desktop components packaged in a first self-contained desktop file is an icon which, when selected by a user of one of the client computer systems, launches a corresponding client-accessible application on the client computer system; identifying a disaster event during which one or more of the desktop components becomes no longer available from the first computer system; requesting one or more of the self-contained desktop files from one or more of the secondary computer systems in response to the identified disaster event; receiving self-contained desktop files from one or more of the secondary computer systems in response to the request; unpacking the desktop components from the received self-contained desktop files; and storing the unpacked desktop components on a nonvolatile storage device accessible from the first computer system.