Abstract: A software application installation system facilitates automatic installation and/or updating of software applications without requiring a user to have any specific knowledge of the configuration of the computer system upon which the software application is to be installed and/or updated. The software applications to be installed may be supplied by third party providers. The installation is based on automatically derived knowledge of the computer system on which the software applications are to be installed. The software applications may be installed automatically using a standardized user interface (UI), and/or without requiring substantial user input.