Patent ID: 8041863

Claim:
A method for permitting applications stored within an external drive to execute from a software environment of a computing device whenever the external drive is connected to the computing device, comprising: installing within an external drive at least one external software application, including storing external configuration items relating to the software application in an external configuration store of the external drive; connecting the external drive to a computing device, said computing device having a local configuration store including local configuration items related to local software applications installed within a local software environment of the computing device, wherein the local configuration store and the external configuration store include different versions of a same runtime component; automatically adding the external configuration items to the local configuration store, wherein the adding step permits the external software application installed on the external device to execute from within the local software environment; activating within the local software environment, a most current one of the different versions of the same runtime component, wherein the activating is selectively user-enabled for the same runtime component and wherein the activating results in the most current version being linked to files in the local software environment having file types associated with the same runtime component; disconnecting the external drive from the computing device; and automatically removing the external configuration items from the local configuration store in response to disconnecting the external drive.