The present invention provides a computer implemented lab reservation system including a reservation engine and a reservation database. The reservation database contains data concerning the computer systems and target operating environments in the lab. The reservation engine manipulates the reservation database in order to efficiently match user requests to specific lab computer systems and target operating environments. The reservation system also manipulates the reservation database in order to efficiently configure computer systems and target operating environments. The reservation engine also manipulates the reservation database in order to efficiently reinstall computer system default settings, when users return configured systems, so that the computer systems can be reallocated to new requests.