Patent ID: 8606377

Claim:
A method of preventing disruptive computer events in a computing system, comprising: executing a process for controlling an external device, the process having a time-noncritical phase and a time-critical phase; controlling the process using a process control application executing on a computing device managed by an operating system by intercommunicating signals between the computing device and the external device; during the time-noncritical phase, operating the computing device in a first mode in which system services and applications other than the process control application are allowed access to resources of the computing device under control of the operating system; operating the computing device in a second mode upon making a determination that the process has entered the time-critical phase; and responsively to the determination, automatically transitioning the computing device from the first mode to the second mode in which the access by the system services and by other applications to the resources of the computing device is selectively limited in favor of the process control application in the second mode; wherein the computing device further comprises a file system having storage objects residing therein, and wherein automatically transitioning the computing device comprises selectively disallowing updates of the storage objects in the file system, and wherein the storage objects comprise a registry having system keys for use by the operating system, application keys for use by the other applications, and data keys, and wherein selectively disallowing updates of the storage objects comprises locking the system keys and the application keys of the registry to prevent updates therein while avoiding locking the data keys of the registry.