Patent ID: 7577948

Claim:
A method of providing upgrade information for a plurality of networked computers comprising the steps of: executing an upgrade program stored in a computer-readable medium on one of the plurality of networked computers; detecting a current hardware configuration of the plurality of networked computers, including gathering information associated with the plurality of networked computers; cross-referencing at least some of the information gathered during the detecting step for each of the plurality of networked computers with product specifications contained in a database; identifying an upgrade package for upgrading hardware of at least some of the plurality of networked computers, wherein the identification of the upgrade package is based at least partially upon the information gathered during the detecting step and cross-referenced with the product specification database and at least partially on a target hardware configuration; and recommending use of the upgrade package for upgrading the hardware of the at least some of the plurality of networked computers; wherein a single target hardware configuration is established for each of the plurality of networked computers; and wherein the step of detecting a current hardware configuration of the plurality of networked computers comprises performing a task from a group of tasks; wherein the group tasks comprising: (a) accessing serial presence detect (SPD) data; (b) accessing motherboard parameters; (c) determining a write-protect status of the SPD; (d) reading operating system data; and (e) determining memory utilization and CPU speed.