A system and method for downloading substantially up to date versions of selected software from a plurality of software vendors over a network and for installing the software to a hardware unit includes a first software handling machine in the network configured to execute a download manager that sends a download transaction request including an identifier associated with the selected software over the network, and downloads and installs the selected software pursuant to a download/installation instruction, and also includes a second software handling machine in the network configured to execute a download supervisor to determine whether the requested download transaction is authorized, and, if so, to communicate a download/installation instruction to the download manager to enable it to download and install the selected software.