Patent 8005991 was granted and assigned to Dell on August, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A virtual machine image (VMI) repository stores a set of VMIs. A subset of the VMIs can be associated with a designated user. In response to receiving a request from a remote device identifying the designated user, a list of the subset of VMIs is communicated to the remote device via a network. The user can select one of the VMIs from the list and the VMI repository can provide the selected VMI to the remote device. The user is thereby permitted to select a VMI suited to a particular use or environment, such as a VMI associated with a work environment.