Patent ID: 7774188

Claim:
A computer program product for implementing a method for a computing system to run a virtual machine directly from a physical machine using snapshots of the physical machine, the computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the computing system, cause the computing system to perform the method, the method comprising: an act of a snapshot component taking a snapshot of a physical system volume of the physical machine while the physical system volume is in an operational state; and an act of the virtual machine initializing using the physical system volume snapshot, thereby allowing the physical system volume snapshot to be a snapshot of a virtual system volume of the virtual machine representing an initial state of the virtual system volume, wherein the virtual machine accesses the same system volume as the physical machine while the system volume is in an operational state on the physical machine, wherein the method further comprises: an act of the virtual machine updating the virtual system volume from the initial state as a result of a software update or patch installation; and an act of testing the software update or patch on the virtual machine for expected functionality.