Patent ID: 6948165

Claim:
In a computer system having a disk drive with a user's preferred operating system installed on the disk drive, a method for installing an application program for execution under the user's preferred operating system without requiring user intervention, the method comprising: receiving a command in the disk drive for reading a first data block to initiate a bootload of the user's preferred operating system; detecting the command in the disk drive and in response to detecting the command, transferring a second data block which, when executed in the computer system, bootloads an installer program for installing the application program; executing the second data block to bootload the installer program in the computer system to: transfer the application program from a protected area of the disk drive which is inaccessible to the user's preferred operating system to a user area of the disk drive which is accessible to the user's preferred operating system; modify a parameter of the user's preferred operating system to cause the application program to be loaded during a bootload of the user's preferred operating system; and reboot the system to bootload the user's preferred operating system.