Patent ID: 6859924

Claim:
A method of restoring software installed on a customer computer system, comprising: (a) providing a computer readable medium for use with said customer computer system, said computer readable medium comprising: communication software configured to provide a communication connection with a vendor computer system, said customer computer system and said vendor computer system being located remotely of each other, said vendor computer system components installed on said customer computer system and any updated versions of said software components, wherein said vendor computer system is configured to transfer software components via said connection; and a copy of the software components installed on said customer computer system; (b) receiving of a selection of one or more software components to restore by said customer computer system; (c) initiating a connection by said customer computer system to said vendor computer system; (d) identifying to the vendor computer system said selected software components; (e) comparing, by said vendor computer system, each of the selected software components to be restored with said software library and determining for which of said selected software components there exists an updated version in said software library and for which of said selected software components there does not exist an updated version in said software library; (f) if there are selected software components for which there exists an updated version in the software library, transferring and installing said updated versions from the vendor computer system to said customer computer system; and (g) if there are selected software components for which there does not exist an updated version in the software library, transferring and installing said selected software components for which there does not exist an updated version in the software library from said computer readable medium.