Patent ID: 8839236

Claim:
A method of operating an electronic device arranged and adapted for metered use comprising: activating a virtual machine monitor running at a higher level of security than any operating system and other application running in a virtual memory container prior to starting an operating system or an application; verifying the virtual machine monitor to ensure integrity of a secure boot-up process; starting a metering application under the control of the virtual machine monitor, the virtual machine monitor providing a tamper-resistant operating environment; starting at least one of an operating system in a virtual memory container and an application in a virtual memory container under the control of the virtual machine monitor; providing measurement data from the virtual machine monitor to the metering application; metering usage of the electronic device at the metering application using the measurement data from the virtual machine monitor; and operating the electronic device in a restricted mode using the virtual machine monitor to limit access of the at least one of an operating system in a virtual memory container and an application in a virtual memory container to system hardware of the electronic device when terms of use are not met based on the metered usage and allowing only operations necessary for entering proof that unrestricted operation should again be allowed.