Patent ID: 7793091

Claim:
A method for use with a computer to load a selected operating system (OS) of interest, comprising: a. providing firmware storing firmware code for a video adapter that is associated with the computer, said firmware code including: (i) video BIOS; (ii) replacement code associated with the video BIOS for redirecting a selected computer system interrupt pointer from a predetermined memory address from which a customary boot loader is accessible, to an alternate address from which a replacement boot loader is accessible, wherein the selected computer system interrupt pointer is associated with an INT 19 entry within a system interrupt table of the computer; and b. during execution of the computer's system BIOS: (i) loading said firmware code into the computer's system memory; (ii) passing control to said firmware code; (iii) executing said replacement code; (iv) executing said video BIOS; (v) returning control to the system BIOS for continued execution thereof; (vi) upon encountering a call within the system BIOS to the selected computer system interrupt pointer: loading the replacement boot loader into system memory; and executing the replacement boot loader for purpose of loading the selected OS.