Patent ID: 7496739

Claim:
A method comprising: maintaining, on a server for each of a plurality of computing systems, data specifying which resources are authorized for the computing system; receiving, by a configuration agent at the server, an identifier associated with a computing system and a computing system user, wherein the identifier associated with the computing system and computing system user comprises a telephone number associated with a first communications device associated with the computing system and is received from the first communications device associated with the computing system, wherein the first communications device is not coupled directly to the computing system, and wherein the first communications device is selected from the group consisting of: a wireless telephony unit, a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant, a personal computer, a KIOSK terminal, an automated teller machine, a wireline telephony unit, a facsimile machine, a video media player, an audio system, and a software defined radio unit; obtaining, by the configuration agent, from the server, data that specifies authorized resources corresponding to the received identifier; interrogating, by the configuration agent, the computing system to produce an assessment indicating existing hardware and/or software resources available on the computing system, wherein software resources include one or more of an operating system, application(s), and personalized configuration setting information; comparing, by the configuration agent, the authorized resources with the assessment to identify one or more resources authorized but not installed on the computing system, wherein one or more resources authorized but not installed does not include updates of currently installed resources; and automatically modifying by the configuration agent the computing system resources by installing the one or more identified resources.