Patent ID: 8214631

Claim:
A method of building a host computer system, the host computer system comprising at least one processor and an associated computer readable medium, the method comprising: while the host computer system is operating in a pre-operating system environment, selecting and loading, by the host computer system, a mini-operating system; implementing a mini-operating system environment on the host computer system, by the host computer system, utilizing the loaded mini-operating system, wherein the pre-operating system environment comprises the mini-operating system environment; loading a runtime to the host computer system, wherein the runtime is configured to execute in the pre-operating system environment and in an operating system environment; executing the runtime, wherein executing the runtime causes the host computer system to: while the host computer system is operating in the mini-operating system environment: discover hardware components present at the host computer system; determine whether the hardware components have been certified for use on the host computer system; load a profile to the host computer system, wherein the profile comprises an indication of an operating system, indications of a plurality of applications, and an indication of at least one configuration parameter; install the operating system to the host computer system; after the host computer system is running the operating system install the plurality of applications to the host computer system; and configure the operating system according to a configuration parameter selected from the at least one configuration parameter.