Patent ID: 7036738

Claim:
An assembly for physically transporting a user profile between network and standalone computing devices, for automatically logging onto one of the network or standalone computing devices, and for automatically configuring the logged-on network or standalone computing device with user-preferences and user-selected operating system characteristics according to the user profile, comprising: a portable profile storage device having an interface to communicate with a physical key and having a secure memory to securely store the user profile; and a removable passcode-activated physical key associated with the user that alternately enables access to the user profile in the memory when the physical key is passcode-activated and coupled with the interface and that disables access to the user profile when removed from the interface, wherein the portable profile storage device makes the user profile accessible to a computing device if the portable profile storage device is coupled with the computing device, the physical key is coupled with the interface, and a user passcode activates the physical key; and wherein the physical key first authenticates the user, then authenticates the portable profile storage device, then automatically logs the user onto the computing device, then automatically configures the computing device with the user-preferences and the user-selected operating system characteristics from the user profile.