Patent ID: 8843926

Claim:
A system comprising: a computer system comprising: a network communication device; a host operating system executing on the computer system, the host operating system being configured to directly operate the network communication device; a virtualized network communication device, wherein use of the virtualized network communication device results in direct operation of the network communication device by the host operating system; a guest operating system executing on the computer system as though it were issuing instructions to a simulated processor of simulated hardware of said virtualized network communication device, the guest operating system being configured to use the virtualized network communication device for network communication activities and running on the simulated processor and the virtual machine; a first nonvolatile data storage device storing a master image of the guest operating system; and a second nonvolatile data storage device storing user information generated by the guest operating system; wherein said virtual network communication device arranges for the instructions to be actually carried out by the computer system, and the virtual machine shields the host operating system of the computer system; wherein, in response to the instructions generated by the host operating system, the computer system is configured to automatically refresh the guest operating system from the master image stored in the first nonvolatile data storage device and the user information stored in the second nonvolatile data storage device; and wherein if the guest operating system is exposed to a condition that could cause an ongoing failure, the guest operating system is refreshed by the host operating system by reloading and re-executing all or part of the operating system from an unchanging master image, then any modification causing an ongoing failure are eliminated and therefore need not be permanent.