Method, computer, and article of manufacturing for fault tolerant booting

A method for preventing a device driver in a computer from rendering an operating system inoperative, wherein the computer initiates a registry, comprising the steps of:

• (a) setting a BootInProgress registry flag;
• (b) saving an AutoReboot OS registry state;
• (c) setting an AutoReboot OS registry flag;
• (d) attaching a filter driver to the device driver;
• (e) restoring the AutoReboot OS registry state;
• and,
• (f) removing the BootInProgress registry flag.

A computer, comprising:

• a processor;
• an operating system, coupled to the processor, stored in a memory;
• a registry stored in the memory;
• a device driver;
• and,
• a fault tolerant booting software program, stored in memory, for preventing the device driver from disabling the operating system during initialization;
• wherein the fault tolerant booting software program includes:
• a first software module for restoring an initial setting of the registry;
• a second software module for attaching a filter to the device driver;
• and,
• a third software module for displaying a device driver failure message.

A computer, comprising:

• a processor;
• an operating system, coupled to the processor, stored in a memory;
• a registry stored in the memory;
• a device driver;
• a fault tolerant booting software program, stored in memory, for preventing the device driver from disabling the operating system during initialization by using a filter;
• a remote control software program including the fault tolerant booting software;
• and,
• a remote computer, coupled to the computer, for displaying video at the remote computer in response to user input at the remote computer.

An article of manufacture including a computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for preventing a device driver in a computer from rendering an operating system inoperative, the computer readable program code means in the article of manufacture comprising:

• computer readable program code for causing a computer to restore an initial registry setting;
• computer readable program code for attaching a filter to a device driver;
• and,
• computer readable program code for displaying a device driver failure message.