1. A method of using an external maintenance device to update a target system configured to boot over a network, the method comprising: receiving at the external maintenance device via at least one network protocol, communication from the target system that the external maintenance device is electrically connected to the target system; and sending, in response to the communication, a target-specific application from the external maintenance device to the target system, wherein the target-specific application is an executable stand-alone application isolated from operational software on the target system that, when executed from a volatile memory on the target system, enables the external maintenance device to perform at least one maintenance operation on the target system, wherein the at least one maintenance operation comprises sending at least one command from the external maintenance device to the target-specific application.