A method, apparatus and program for updating client computers with user specific
application enablement are provided. The invention involves creating a component
control file on a network server, which defines the actions to be performed to
install an enablement component needed to run an application on a client and creating
an installation control file which contains a list of the enablement components
needed to run the set of applications that have been assigned to a user. The enablement
components are changes to the operating system's configuration. When a user logs
onto a client computer, a mechanism in the client reads the user's installation
control file from the server and then installs the necessary enablement components
on the client operating system, if those components are not already installed.
In one embodiment, the user receives a prompt before the components are installed,
in case the user does not want to use the entire set of assigned applications.