Patent ID: 7299494

Claim:
A method of managing a file stored in a non-volatile memory device of a computer, comprising steps of: uncompressing a compressed file stored in the non-volatile memory device to generate an uncompressed file separately from the compressed file in the non-volatile memory device, the uncompressed file comprising an application to be read by the computer to start operation of said application; checking reference information relating to a usage restriction of said application, said reference information being contained in a header area of the compressed file; initiating the application and modifying usage information contained in the compressed portion of the file in response to the initiation of the application, wherein the usage information is represented by an aggregated number of data blocks of count data, if the application usage restriction condition does not exist, as well as automatically deleting the uncompressed file as the started application terminates its operation; and automatically deleting the uncompressed file as the started application terminates its operation if the usage restriction condition exists.