1. A method for temporarily transforming a general purpose computing device into a specific-purpose appliance, the method comprising, with the computing device: detecting an event on the computing device, and in response to the event: identifying a shared system resource of the computing device to which a specific-purpose appliance application needs exclusive access while the specific-purpose appliance application is activated on the computing device, the shared system resource comprising hardware coupled to the computing device; enabling the identified shared system resource for use by the specific-purpose appliance application; disabling use of the identified shared system resource by other executable components on the computing device; and activating the specific-purpose appliance application if the identified shared system resource is enabled for use by the specific-purpose appliance application and the identified shared system resource is disabled for the other executable components.