Patent ID: 7213241

Claim:
A method for dispatching multiple software applications as threads executed by an operating system comprising: initializing a universal interface program as a low-level operating system service executable; launching an operating system virtual machine, wherein the virtual machine is adapted to simultaneously execute multiple operating system independent application programs; and initializing an application controller within the operating system virtual machine, wherein, during execution of the low-level system service executable, the application controller is adapted to read configuration data and to respond to the configuration data by spawning virtual machine threads within the virtual machine to execute each of the operating system independent application programs identified by the configuration data in a different spawned thread of the virtual machine; wherein the application controller is further adapted to periodically re-read the configuration data during the execution of the operating system independent application programs; and wherein the application controller is further adapted to respond to the configuration data by selectively starting or stopping at least one of the operating system independent application programs after stopping or starting a respective one of the at least one operating system independent application programs.