Patent ID: 8286159

Claim:
A method comprising: providing a storage medium having a pre-written plurality of installed soft assets that include a plurality of installed programs and an operating system, the storage medium also having directory data having entries indicative of locations of the soft assets and registry data having entries used by the operating system to properly execute each of the plurality of installed programs; connecting the storage medium having the pre-written plurality of installed soft assets to an end-user information-processing device, wherein the end-user information-processing device is for use by an end user; receiving selection indications specific to the end user that distinguish a customized first subset of the installed soft assets to be kept from a second subset of the installed soft assets not to be kept; and automatically subtracting the second subset of the installed soft assets from the storage medium before an initial availability of the device to the end user such that after the second subset is subtracted and after the storage medium is connected to the device, the device includes the first subset of installed soft assets substantially ready to use.