Patent ID: 8528037

Claim:
A system, comprising: a network control system having a communication link to at least one set top box, the communication link configured to provide command/control and data to a plurality of set top boxes; a publication system configured to create configuration files to be used by applications executing on the set top box; and a memory configured to store the created configuration files, and a system for provisioning the set top box configured to: transmit a configurable deployment group identifier for the set top box, wherein the configurable deployment group identifier is common to a subset of the plurality of set top boxes that have a common characteristic and activates and deactivates on a group level applications executing on the subset of the plurality of set top boxes; and respond to a request having the configurable deployment group identifier from the set top box requesting a configuration file by sending the configuration file to the set top box in accordance with the configurable deployment group identifier, wherein the configuration file is a boot configuration file that contains data identifying a user interface version, and the system for provisioning the set to box is further configured to download the boot configuration file corresponding to the configurable deployment group identifier, and reconfigure the configurable deployment group identifier when the requesting set top box is registered with the system for provisioning the set top box.