Patent ID: 7487409

Claim:
An apparatus to provide access to system information, the apparatus comprising: an observation module that intercepts one or more input device signals sent to a local system from one or more input devices, buffers the one or more input device signals, and passes the one or more input device signals on to the local system, the local system comprising at least a processor; a monitoring module that recognizes selected inputs from among the input device signals; and an action module that intercepts video signals of an image for an output display, buffers the video signals, and passes the video signals to the output display; and in response to a triggering event, modifies the video signals prior to passing the video signals to the output display, wherein the video signals are modified to one or more of display system information along with at least a portion of the image and to display a prompt to provide access to system information with at least a portion of the image, and wherein the system information is accessible independent of one or more of the processor and an operating system executing on the processor.