System and method for portable emulation of operating environment

Abstract

The invention embeds an emulation module in removable media, for use in replicating an operating environment on a laptop or other remote machines. The emulation module prompts the user to capture environmental settings on an originating machine, such as display settings, network settings, input/output, applications, working data files and other parameters on a removable media. The user may then insert the removable media in a compatible reader attached to the laptop or other secondary or host machine, and upon activation of the emulation module reproduce the screen display, applications, data files and other resources on the host machine. When the user is finished working on the host machine, the emulation module may restore the settings of the operating environment on that machine to their preexisting state. Working data may be synchronized between the originating and host machines.

1 . A removable storage device comprising storage media, wherein the removable storage device stores a set of operating environmental variables defining a first operating environment from a first machine on the storage media, the removable storage device being adapted to connect to a second machine to modify a second operating environment of the second machine based on the stored operating environmental variables so the modified operating environment of the second machine emulates the first operating environment of the first machine independent of the operation of the first machine.  
     
     
         2 . The removable storage device of  claim 1 , wherein the second operating environment is modified upon connection of the second machine to the removable media.  
     
     
         3 . The removable storage device of  claim 1 , wherein the second operating environment of the second machine is restored upon termination of the emulation.  
     
     
         4 . The removable storage device of  claim 1 , wherein the storage media is adapted to reconnect to the first machine and synchronize data between the storage media and the first machine.  
     
     
         5 . The removable storage device of  claim 1 , wherein the storage media is solid state media.  
     
     
         6 . The removable storage device of  claim 1 , wherein the set of operating environmental variables includes applications available on the first machine.