Patent ID: 8862709

Claim:
A client computing device for booting via a bootable image, the client computing device comprising: a memory implemented in the client computing device and storing therein a plurality of bootable images, each bootable image having machine-executable instructions for booting the client computing device; a packet parser implemented on the client computing device to identify a partition identification associated with a bootable image in a wake-on-LAN packet to be received by the client computing device from a network, wherein the partition identification refers to a location of the bootable image within the memory of the client computing device, the bootable image to be one of the plurality of bootable images within the memory, wherein the partition identification associated with the bootable image in the wake-on-LAN packet specifies the location as a real or logical address pointer for the bootable image within a local resource of the client computing device; partition identification logic implemented on the client computing device and being coupled with the packet parser to store the partition identification in a memory location, the memory location to maintain the partition identification to instruct the boot manager to boot via the bootable image stored within the memory of the client computing device; and pre-boot logic implemented on the client computing device to implement an alternative boot sequence of booting from a default bootable image to boot from the bootable image at the location within the memory of the client computing device in response to the presence of the partition identification in the memory location, and to execute software to determine the trustworthiness of a software application on a maintenance server prior to executing the software application, the pre-boot logic to scan the memory location to determine the presence of the partition identification and to instruct a boot manager to boot via the bootable image in response to the presence of the partition identification.