Patent ID: 8302108

Claim:
A method, comprising: providing, on a computing device having a base file system and a base configuration of a base operating system, a virtualization system; virtually installing, to the computing device, a first feature set of a software application by installing the first feature set to a first virtual sub-layer without writing to the base file system and the base configuration, the first feature set including a first subset of features associated with the software application; and enabling the first virtual sub-layer to activate the first feature set such that access requests associated with the first feature set of the software application are redirected, by the virtualization system, from the base file system and/or the base configuration to the first virtual sub-layer; virtually installing, to the computing device, a second feature set of the software application by installing the second feature set to a second virtual sub-layer without writing to the base file system and the base configuration, the second feature set including a second subset of the features associated with the software application that are different than the first subset of features associated with the software application; and enabling the second virtual sub-layer to activate the second feature set such that access requests associated with the second feature set of the software application are redirected, by the virtualization system, from the base file system and/or the base configuration to the second virtual sub-layer.