Hypervisors are a new technology in the industry that enable multiple Operating Systems to co-exist on a single client. The use of a hypervisor provides a novel approach to determining the operability of an Operating System. Each Operating System is a virtualized Operating System, with its own IP address. According to a preferred embodiment, the capability Operating System has an application that is a monitor program that runs and provides information that is sent to the maintenance Operating System. The monitor program sends a status packet at regular intervals, which contains system power state and is a confirmation that the system is not hung. If the maintenance Operating System does not receive a packet at a regular interval, or in response to a query, then the maintenance Operating System will be aware that the capability Operating System is hung and will take appropriate measures.