Patent · US Expired

Method and system for restoring a computer to its original state after an unsuccessful installation attempt

US6363499B1 · kind B1 · utility

107Cited by
5References
15Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 21, 1998
Grant dateMar 26, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 21, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F11/1433
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A system and method for creating rollback scripts for operations performed by an installer program module. A rollback script may be used to reverse an action of an installer program module so that a user's machine is restored to its original state, i.e., the state before the installer program module began performing operations. In performing operations, the installer program module typically generates installation script records of specific actions that are to be performed to a particular machine with regard to installation data. During the processing of each installation script record, an inverse record is created, known as a rollback script record. When installing a file, if there is no file with the same name in the same location stored on the machine, then a rollback script record describing how to delete the file is stored. However, if an old file stored in the same location does exist, then the old file is backed up to another location and a rollback script record is saved describing how to copy the old file back to its prior location on the machine.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.