Self-contained application disk for automatically launching application software or starting devices and peripherals

A computer-readable medium having stored thereon an instruction file comprising:

• a monitoring section to detect an activation event for a predetermined participating application, such that when the activation event occurs the following special instruction sections are automatically executed:
• a pre-run section containing instructions to be executed by a computer-implemented device prior to launching said predetermined participating application;
• an application run section containing instructions to launch said participating application and further instructions to copy or maintain certain data files at specific storage locations to be available for use during running of said participating application;
• and
• a clean-up section containing instructions to be executed upon closing said participating application including additional instructions to remove or save certain data files at specific storage locations prior to said closing, and
• wherein said monitoring section is capable to detect a termination event for said participating application such that when the termination event occurs the cleanup section is automatically executed.

A method of managing a plurality of software programs for use with a computer device in accordance with special instructions contained on storage media external to or removable from the computer device, said method comprising:

• activating the storage media to establish communication with the computer device;
• providing a list of the plurality of software programs located on the storage media;
• selecting one of the plurality of software programs for execution;
• providing special instructions in a control file located on the storage media for each of the selected software programs, the special instructions including configuration information, software launching information;
• and data file storage information;
• transferring files and configuring the computer device from a first state in accordance with the configuration information, wherein upon configuration the computer device is in a second state;
• launching the selected software in accordance with the software launching information;
• monitoring events to determine various stages in the operation of the selected software;
• and
• unconfiguring the computer device upon termination of the software program by removing files transferred to the computing device to essentially return the computer device to the first state.

A computer-readable medium containing instructions to be executed by a computing device, said instructions comprising:

• configuring said computing device from a first state to a second state in accordance with an instruction file contained on said computer-readable media;
• launching one or more participating applications in accordance with information in said instruction file;
• monitoring events in said computing device and said participating application until execution of said participating software application is detected to be completed or terminated;
• and thereafter
• unconfiguring said computing device to return the computing device to the first state.