Patent ID: 8533830

Claim:
A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon to cause one or more processors to: mount an image of a computer system in a pre-boot environment of the computer system, the mounted image including a file system structure and initialization data of the computer system; initiate persistent components in the pre-boot environment; monitor a security system of the computer system during execution of an operating system of the computer system, utilizing the persistent components, to ensure that the security system executes as expected; identify a first set of components of the computer system registered to be automatically loaded; identify a second set of components of the computer system registered to be loaded during a boot-up stage of the computer system that is predetermined to be early; and perform, in the pre-boot environment, at least one task on at least one component in the first or second set of components of the mounted image by the security system to validate the computer system, wherein the persistent components span execution in the pre-boot environment and the operating system of the computer system.