Patent ID: 8245185

Claim:
An article of manufacture comprising: a storage medium; a processor operatively coupled to the storage medium; a plurality of installed, functional software applications organized in a protoset on the storage medium, the protoset configured to enable creation of one or more metasets on the storage medium, each of the one or more metasets configured to be operable with a computer system that includes the processor and the storage medium, wherein the one or more metasets includes a selected set of the plurality of installed software applications, wherein the selected set of the plurality installed software applications are selected for purchase in a request; and a protoset module stored on the storage medium and configured to be executed by the processor, wherein the protoset module, when executed by the processor: distinguishes the selected set of the plurality of software applications from a non-selected set of the plurality of installed software applications based on the request, operates on the protoset to create the one or more metasets in a state in which each of the installed software applications in the one or more metasets is operationally available, and operates on the protoset to uninstall a plurality of the non-selected set of the plurality of installed software applications.