Method of software installation

Abstract

A method of reducing the time needed for installing a combination of software programs onto a hard disk drive by creating modules for each software program and associating a file with each software program that records all changes made to files and directories by the installation process of that software program. When downloading combinations of these modules onto a hard disk drive, a software installation program is run which implements the changes to files and directories necessitated by each of the modules thereby resulting in a disk operating system that is properly configured for the operation of the combination of software programs.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a method of software installation, and more specifically to a method for reducing the time required by a computer manufacturer to install software onto a hard disk drive.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A computer manufacturer typically pre-installs a plurality of software programs onto a hard disk drive of a computer system before the computer system is shipped to a reseller or end user. At a minimum, most computer manufacturers pre-install a disk operating system (DOS) and a graphical user interface (GUI). Currently, a majority of computer manufacturers pre-install Microsoft Corporation's version of a disk operating system called MS-DOS and Microsoft Corporation's version of a graphical user interface called Windows. Furthermore, more and more computer manufacturers are "bundling" a variety of additional software programs onto their computer systems to make them more attractive to the end user.

Although other versions of disk operating systems and graphical user interfaces are available, the terms DOS and Windows are used throughout this disclosure to refer to all types of disk operating systems and graphical user interfaces.

Since a diskette-by-diskette installation of each individual software program onto each hard disk drive of each computer system takes far too much time to complete, computer manufacturers implemented a faster method of installing a plurality of software programs onto the hard disk drive.

Basically, the computer manufacturer takes a particular model of a computer system that is to be shipped with a particular pre-installed bundle of software programs, and manually installs all of these programs diskette-by-diskette onto the hard disk drive, ensuring that all of the configuration files are properly modified.

It is well known in the art that certain software programs need to make certain modifications to what are known as configuration files, such as AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files in DOS, and SYSTEM.INI, PROGMAN.INI, and WIN.INI files in Windows, in order for the program to run properly. Other programs need to add certain files to certain directories in order for the program to run properly. Some of these changes are based upon specific hardware components that are present in the particular model of the computer system, such as a specific type of video card, or sound card, etc. Therefore, modifications made to the configuration files for one computer system model may not work if duplicated for use in another computer system model. The term "changes" is used to encompass additions, deletions, and modifications resulting from the installation of a software program.

Once the manual installation process is completed, the computer manufacturer then creates a compressed disk image file using an industry standard compression program called PKZIP, which is produced by PKWARE Inc. The compressed disk image file represents all of the properly installed software programs, properly modified configuration files, and properly added files, on the hard disk drive. The computer manufacturer then uses this disk image file to rapidly duplicate the installation process on other computer systems by decompressing or "exploding" a copy of the compressed disk image file onto the hard disk drive that is installed in similar computer system models with the same bundle of software programs.

If the compressed disk image file for one computer system model is exploded and downloaded onto the hard disk drive of another computer system model, the configuration files may not be properly modified to work with the different hardware components present in the other model. Therefore, a different disk image file must be created manually for every different hardware and software configuration. This did not pose an immediate problem since many of the computer system models being shipped contained the same set of hardware components and software programs, and thus, the creation of only a few distinct disk image files were required. The use of a disk imaging method, as described above, greatly reduced the amount of time required by computer manufacturers to install predetermined bundles of software programs onto large numbers of similarly configured computer systems.

However, the disk imaging method did not provide enough flexibility, and as a result, created certain disadvantages. Computer manufacturers began shipping a large number of computer systems with different hardware and software configurations, and thus had to create a large number of distinct disk image files, thereby reducing the efficiency of the disk imaging method.

For example, in an effort to meet the needs and desires of each individual customer, computer manufacturers now offer what seems to be an endless combination of various hardware components and various software programs. The more combinations that the computer manufacturer offers, the less number of times that a particular disk image file is used, and the more number of times that a manual diskette-by-diskette installation has to be performed for a new combination.

Therefore, a better solution is required that provides the computer manufacturer with a fast, yet flexible, method of installing software onto the hard disk drive of various computer system models comprising various hardware components and software programs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method of software installation of the present invention for reducing the time required by a computer manufacturer to install software onto a computer system's hard disk drive provides the computer manufacturer with a fast, yet flexible, method of installing software onto the hard disk drive of various computer system models comprising various hardware components and software programs.

The method of software installation of the present invention utilizes a modular approach. Rather than creating a disk image of an entire hard disk drive comprising a plurality of pre-installed software programs, the modular approach implements individual modules for each and every software program that is available to the computer manufacturer for downloading onto the hard disk drive of the computer system.

When installing various software programs onto a computer system containing various hardware components, the computer manufacturer is basically concerned with the following things: (1) proper configuration of the operating system and graphical user interface such as DOS and Windows, (2) proper configuration of device drivers such as mouse drivers and video card drivers, (3) proper configuration of application programs such as word processors and spreadsheets, and (4) proper configuration of utility programs such as hard disk drive backup programs.

Typically, the operating system and graphical user interface are installed onto the hard disk drive first, and then the device drivers, followed by the applications and utilities. The installation of the device drivers, applications, and utilities typically require that certain changes be made to the configuration files or Windows directory. Again, it is noted that the term "changes" encompasses additions, deletions, and modifications. Therefore, to implement the modular method, the computer manufacturer loads each individual device driver, application, and utility separately. Each individual driver, application, or utility, is referred to as a single module.

Each device driver and application, or module, that is available for downloading is installed onto a computer system one by one. After each and every separate installation of one of these software programs or modules, all of the files on the hard disk drive are thoroughly checked to determine whether any changes have been made to certain files or directories, such as the configuration files, as a result of the installation of that single particular module. Any changes that are made to any of the files or directories resulting from the installing of that single particular module are recorded into a separate file associated with that module called a "script" file. Each module has an associated script file which specifies every change made to every file.

In this way, an endless number of various combinations of hardware components and software programs can be installed efficiently. For example, assume that an order has come in for a computer system equipped with a version A mouse, a version B video card, a version C word processor, and a version D spreadsheet. With the prior art disk imaging method, if this combination of hardware and software were new, a new disk image would have to be created, and therefore, no time is saved. However, with the modular method, the computer manufacturer simply installs the following modules onto the hard disk drive: the disk operating module, graphical user interface module, version A mouse device driver module, version B video card device driver module, version C word processor module, and version D spreadsheet module.

Since each module, with all of its necessary files and its associated script file, is compressed using an industry standard compression program called PKZIP, and then stored on a hard disk drive, CD-ROM, or other mass data storage device, downloading a new combination of various modules onto the hard disk drive for a new computer system is much quicker than the diskette-by-diskette method of software installation. Furthermore, since the script files for each module automatically implements all changes necessary for that module when the script file is executed, as further described below, the computer manufacturer does not have to spend additional time ensuring the proper installation and configuration of each individual module.

The way in which the script files automatically implement changes to the configuration files is as follows. In a preferred embodiment, a software installation program, called a Hard Disk Master (HDM) program, is loaded onto the hard disk drive along with all of the modules necessary to fulfill a specifically requested configuration. The software installation program runs a batch program called FIX$FILE.BAT and an execution program called SCRIPT.EXE. Once all of the module files, including its associated script file, are exploded and downloaded onto the hard disk drive, the FIX$FILE.BAT program runs the batch files associated with each installed module in the order that the modules are downloaded. The module batch files include an instruction to run the SCRIPT.EXE program. The SCRIPT.EXE program executes the script file associated with that module.

The SCRIPT.EXE and associated module script files are programmed such that the execution of each module's script file by the SCRIPT.EXE program implements the changes required by that particular module to the appropriate configuration files and directories, in order to make that module work properly.

For example, if the proper installation of the model A mouse device driver requires that a line such as "LOADHIGH C:.backslash.MOUSE.backslash.MOUSE" be written into the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, then the script file associated with the mouse driver module contains instructions which, when run by the SCRIPT.EXE program, implements these changes to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

Therefore, since all modules are preferably stored on a single mass data storage medium, and since all configurations are implemented automatically by the SCRIPT.EXE and associated module's script files, this modular method of software installation provides benefits not available with the prior art method of disk imaging.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to reduce the time required by a computer manufacturer to install software onto a hard disk drive of a computer system.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the drawings and ensuing description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a method of software installation.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a connection of a mass data storage device with a hard disk drive of a computer system to facilitate the downloading of modules from the mass data storage device to the hard disk drive.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a method of software installation. The steps involved in the method of software installation of the present invention are described in greater detail below, with reference to FIG. 1.

In order to implement the method of software installation of the present invention, one of the first things that a computer manufacturer must do is determine the changes that a driver, application program, or utility program, makes to the Root, DOS, and Windows directories and files during installation of that particular program. Therefore, the computer manufacturer installs DOS and Windows onto a computer system 300, as shown in box 10. The Root, DOS, and Windows directory contents are then saved to a temporary directory, as shown in box 20, so that after the installation of a particular software program, changes in the Root, DOS, and Windows directory contents can be compared to the original contents stored in the temporary directory.

For purposes of terminology, a disk operating program, a graphical user interface program, device drivers, utility programs, and application programs, are referred to herein as software programs, and the use of the term software program is meant to represent these various types of programs. Each of these software programs are installed individually, mutually exclusive of other software program installations, so that the exact changes directly attributable to that particular software program can be determined, as shown in box 30.

One by one, every software program that the computer manufacturer currently makes available in an end product is installed, and the resulting Root, DOS, and Windows directory contents are compared to the original contents, in order to determine the changes made. For example, assume that the particular computer system 300 is to be shipped with a model A mouse. The computer manufacturer therefore needs to create a module for the mouse driver software program. As shown in box 30, the mouse driver software is installed onto the computer system 300. Upon successful installation, the Root, DOS, and Windows directory contents are compared to the original contents, as shown in box 40. Assume, for the purpose of this example, that the only change made is the addition of a single line to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file in the Root directory. The added line reads as follows: "LOADHIGH C:.backslash.MOUSE.backslash.MOUSE."

Any changes made to any files resulting from the installation of the software program, in this case the addition of a single line to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, are recorded in a separate "script" file associated with that software program and stored in a temporary directory, as shown in box 50. These script files are basically files containing predetermined changes to the configuration of DOS and Windows. A corresponding batch file is created to run the script file.

As shown in box 60, the directories, subdirectories, and files installed by a particular program, plus the temporary directory containing the script file and batch file associated with that software program, are all compressed into a module using an industry standard compression utility program called PKZIP. Then, when the module is later decompressed, all of the software program's directories, subdirectories, and files are exploded onto a hard disk drive 310 (as shown in FIG. 2), along with the temporary directory containing the script and batch files.

For example, assume that after successful installation, a word processor program creates a directory called WP and a subdirectory called TUTOR. Then the module for this software program includes the WP directory, the TUTOR subdirectory, all of the files in the WP directory and TUTOR subdirectory, and the temporary directory containing a script file called WP.SPT and a batch file called WP.BAT. All of this data is compressed into a single file, called the word processor module, by the PKZIP compression program.

In the method of software installation of the present invention, once a module is created for each software program, as shown in box 70, there is no more need for a diskette-by-diskette installation to be performed. This is not true with the disk imaging method, where only a slight change in a hardware or software bundle configuration required the reinstallation of many of the same software programs over and over again using the diskette-by-diskette process.

One of the benefits of the present invention is the simplicity in which various combinations of software programs are downloaded to the hard disk drive 310. For example, assume that the computer system 300 is to be configured with DOS, Windows, a model A mouse driver, a model B video card driver, a model C word processor, and a model D spreadsheet. The computer manufacturer simply loads all of the modules for all of the software programs onto a mass data storage device 200 (as shown in FIG. 2). A menu system is used which assigns a distinct part number to each software program module, or software program bundle. Assume that the part numbers for the six requested modules above are 111, 222, 333, 444, 555, and 666, or that the part number for that particular software bundle is 99999. Then the computer manufacturer simply inputs the appropriate numbers to the menu system to request this combination of software. No diskette-by-diskette installation is required even if such a combination of software has never been prepared before.

Note that the DOS and Windows modules do not have a temporary directory or an associated script file. The DOS and Windows modules only contain the directories, subdirectories and files associated with the DOS and Windows software program respectively, since changes to the DOS and Windows programs are typically made by the installation of other software programs.

As shown in FIG. 2, the hard disk drive 310 of the computer system 300 is connected to the mass data storage device 200 to facilitate the downloading of various modules onto the hard disk drive 310. The hard disk drive 310 is placed in the computer system 300 that it is to be shipped with, and this computer system 300 is connected to the mass data storage device 200 such that the selected modules for that particular computer system 300 are downloaded to that computer system's 300 hard disk drive 310.

However, the particular hard disk drive 310 can also be installed into another computer system (not shown) after this downloading process. The hard disk drive 310 does not necessarily have to be in the computer system 300 that it will eventually be shipped in, so long as the modules being downloaded onto the hard disk drive 310 correspond to the computer system (not shown) in which the hard disk drive 310 will eventually be shipped.

Typically, software program modules are downloaded from the mass data storage device 200 to the hard disk drive 310 via a parallel port connection, or a network connection between the mass data storage device 200 and the computer system 300. Various implementations for downloading data from the mass data storage device 200 to the hard disk drive 310 are known in the industry, and is not new. It is to be understood that the specific implementation used to implement the method of the present invention is not important. Many various implementations are known and can be adapted to the present method.

Therefore, by simply entering the number or numbers associated with the desired software programs into the menu system, as shown in box 80, the mass data storage device 200 retrieves the selected software program modules, downloads and explodes the directories, subdirectories, and files associated with the selected software programs, including the temporary directory containing the script and batch file, to the hard disk drive 310, as shown in box 90.

After the computer manufacturer finishes exploding all of the selected modules onto the hard disk drive 310, a temporary directory, called TEMP for illustrative purposes, now contains the script and batch files for the mouse module, the video card module, the word processor module, and the spreadsheet module. The computer manufacturer also downloads a software installation program onto the hard disk drive 310. The software installation program comprises a program called FIX$FILE.BAT and a program called SCRIPT.EXE. The purpose of the FIX$FILE.BAT program is to execute all batch files associated with each module in the order that they are downloaded from the mass data storage device 200, as shown in box 100.

FIX$FILE.BAT executes each module's batch program which runs each modules's script file located in the TEMP directory in the order that the modules are downloaded onto the hard disk drive 310. There are certain situations in which the operation of a certain software program depends upon whether that program is downloaded before or after certain other programs. Therefore, the computer manufacturer structures the menu selection system such that the download order of the selected modules will not create operational problems based upon load order.

In the present example, the batch files in load order are, for illustrative purposes, called the MOUSE.BAT, VIDEO.BAT, WRDPRCSR.BAT, and SPRDSHT.BAT files. As shown in box 110, the MOUSE.BAT file, for example, contains an instruction line that reads "SCRIPT.EXE MOUSE.SPT." This instruction runs the SCRIPT.EXE program which implements the changes recorded in the MOUSE.SPT file. The MOUSE.SPT is the script file for the mouse module, and contains all changes made to the Root, DOS, and Windows directories as a result of the installation of the mouse software program. The MOUSE.SPT file contains lines that read "%C:.backslash.AUTOEXEC.BAT" and "PATH= LOADHIGH C:.backslash.MOUSE.backslash.MOUSE." Based upon predetermined instruction codes defined by the computer manufacturer, these two lines instruct the computer system 300 to place the line "LOADHIGH C:.backslash.MOUSE.backslash.MOUSE" directly above the "PATH" line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file of the Root directory.

The FIX$FILE.BAT then runs the VIDEO.BAT, WRDPRCSR.BAT and SPRDSHT.BAT files which in turn runs the SCRIPT.EXE files which implement the changes that are recorded in a VIDEO.SPT, WRDPRCSR.SPT and SPRDSHT.SPT script files, as shown in box 110.

In this way, each module is responsible for updating the Root, DOS, and Windows directories so that that particular module operates properly. Since each module carries its own instructions for implementing its necessary changes, various different combinations of modules do not increase the amount of work required, as would be required by the prior art disk imaging method.

Once all of the module batch files are run, all of the script and FIX$FILE associated files are deleted from the hard disk drive 310, as shown in box 120, and the installed software is now properly configured for all of the installed software program modules. This process significantly reduces the time necessary for the computer manufacturer to create various new combinations of software bundles.

FIG. 2 shows the hardware elements associated with the method of software installation of the present invention. The mass data storage device 200 is in communication with the computer system 300 via a data bus 250. The mass data storage device 200 can be a stand-alone computer system (not shown) or part of a computer network (not shown). Typically, the mass data storage device 200 is a very large hard disk drive (not shown) although it could also be a plurality of CD-ROMS or other data storage devices (not shown).

The computer system 300 comprises the hard disk drive 310. The method of software installation of the present invention works whether the hard disk drive 310 is to be shipped with the computer system 300, or whether the hard disk drive 310 is to be shipped with another computer system (not shown) so long as the modules being exploded and downloaded onto the hard disk drive 310 correspond to the computer system, 300 or otherwise, that the hard disk drive 310 will eventually be shipped in.

The typical computer system 300 further comprises a mouse 320, a keyboard 330, internal random access memory 340, and a central processing unit 350. All of these components are interconnected through, or in communication with, the central processing unit 350. Most computer systems 300 are not sold with a monitor 360. Monitors 360 are usually sold separately.

While the above description contains many specificities, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the invention, but rather as an exemplification of preferred embodiments thereof. Many other variations are possible. For example, while MS-DOS and Windows are used in a preferred embodiment, many other disk operating systems and graphical user interfaces are available which can be adapted to the above disclosed methods of software installation and setup. The term "operating system" shall be given its broadest meaning throughout the specification and claims, and is meant to encompass disk operating systems, as well as graphical user interface operating environments.

Furthermore, Microsoft Corporation's Windows graphical user interface in its current version is more of an operating environment than an operating system. However, it is well known in the industry that Microsoft Corporation is developing a new generation of operating software presently called Windows 95. Windows 95 is a graphical user interface that is also a disk operating system, and not just a disk operating environment. It is to be understood that the method of software installation described above can be implemented by a person of ordinary skill in the art to any disk operating system, regardless of whether a graphical user interface is integrated into the operating system or not.

Moreover, it is to be understood that the mass data storage device encompasses a CD-ROM, and an end user may use a CD-ROM player to download data from the CD-ROM to the hard disk drive according to the methods claimed herein.

Appendix A comprises printouts of software programs relevant to the software installation program discussed above. ##SPC1##

Claims

1. A method of software installation for installing software on a computer system through the use of installation modules tailored to specific hardware components of the computer system, said method comprising the steps of:

storing on at least one mass data storage device a plurality of software modules for downloading onto a hard disk drive, each software module comprising a software application program and a script file associated with said application program, said script file defining at least one change to a configuration of an operating system program previously stored on said hard disk drive, wherein said script file associated with said software application programs is created according to the following steps:

installing said operating system program onto a second data storage device;

saving data stored within one or more directories of said operating system program stored on said second data storage device to one or more temporary directories;

installing said software application onto said second data storage device, and effecting one or more requisite changes to said operating system program stored on said second data storage device;

comparing post-installation data stored within said one or more directories of said operating system program stored on said second data storage device with said data stored in said one or more temporary directories; and

recording one or more changes to said operating system program resulting from said installation of said software application program within said script file;

selecting at least one software module for downloading onto the hard disk drive of a personal computer in accordance with hardware components included in said personal computer;

downloading said at least one selected software module onto the hard disk drive of said personal computer; and

modifying said operating system according to said at least one change to a configuration defined by said script file.