Patent ID: 7574592

Claim:
A method implemented at least in part by a computing device for approving a client to boot in a pre-boot execution environment, said method comprising: receiving from the client a request to boot the client by the computing device, said request including device information associated with the client, said device information comprising hardware information of the client; querying a data store having a collection of known device information in response to the received request, said known device information comprising known hardware information of devices; determining if the included device information in the request is stored in the data store in response to the querying; if it is determined that the included device information is not in the data store, storing the request in a queue storing device information of unknown clients; providing a notification to a user at the computing device to determine whether to execute the received request by evaluating the device information in the stored request; sending a boot program to the client to delay any internal booting process of the client until a decision is made in response to the request from the client; and receiving an input from the user at the computing device indicating granting or denying the received request in response to the provided.