Automatic computer user account management on multi account computer system

• US 10,303,653 B2
• Filed: 09/15/2016
• Issued: 05/28/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Martin, Jessica Lynn, Wei, Yaou, Herman, Zachary Grant, Donahue, Tyler Joseph, Anthony, Christopher Ronald, Lejeune, Christophe Dae Seung
• Primary Examiner(s): Todd, Gregory G
• Application Number:
  US15/267,029
• Publication Number:
  US 20170310785A1
• Time in Patent Office: 985 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1727 Details of free space management performed by the file system saving storage space on storage systems G06F3/0608; management of blocks in storage devices G06F3/064
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2143 Clearing memory, e.g. to prevent the data from being stolen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0652 Erasing, e.g. deleting, data cleaning, moving of data to a wastebasket
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/143 Termination or inactivation of sessions, e.g. event-controlled end of session
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data

Abstract

Managing user accounts on a shared computing device to maintain at least one of system resources or performance. The method includes identifying one or more desired triggers indicating that that one or more user accounts should be deleted from the shared computing device to comply with a predetermined resource target. The method further includes, as a result of the one or more triggers, deleting user accounts to attempt to comply with the predetermined resource target.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to configure the computer system to manage different user accounts having different priorities on a shared computing device, having a plurality of different user accounts for a plurality of different users, to maintain at least one of system resources or performance, including instructions that are executable to configure the computer system to perform at least the following;

identify one or more triggers, wherein at least one of the triggers is a free disk space trigger indicating that one or more user accounts should be deleted from the shared computing device to comply with a predetermined resource target, wherein the resource target comprises an amount of free disk space;

as a result of the one or more triggers, delete user accounts on the shared computing device to attempt to comply with the predetermined resource target, wherein deleting user accounts is performed based on networked domain connectivity such that local user accounts are deleted prior to networked domain based user accounts, and where user accounts from lower priority networked domains than other user accounts are deleted prior to deleting the other user accounts from higher priority networked domains, such that networked domain based user accounts that are not deleted on the shared computing device have a faster logon time than networked domain based user accounts that are deleted on the shared computing device;

once the resource target has been reached, cease deleting user accounts as a result.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the one or more triggers comprise resource triggers based on disk usage.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the one or more triggers further comprise resource triggers based on a number of accounts on the shared computing device.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein deleting user accounts takes into account exemptions for one or more user accounts.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the deleting user accounts is further prioritized based on the size of the user accounts.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein deleting user accounts is further prioritized based on an amount of offline storage for accounts on the shared computing device.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein deleting user accounts is further prioritized based on the number or frequency of logins for the user accounts.

8. The computer system of claim 1, wherein deleting user accounts is based on a likelihood that certain users using the shared computing device will login to the computing device within a shorter timeframe than other users.

9. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising deleting portions of a user account and identifying those portions as online only portions of the user account while continuing to maintain other portions of the user account at the shared computing device.

10. A computer implemented method of managing user accounts on a shared computing device to maintain at least one of system resources or performance, the method comprising:

identifying one or more triggers, wherein at least one of the triggers is a free disk space trigger indicating that one or more user accounts should be deleted from the shared computing device, having a plurality of different user accounts for a plurality of different users, to comply with a predetermined resource target, wherein the resource target comprises an amount of free disk space;

as a result of the one or more triggers, deleting user accounts on the shared computing device to attempt to comply with the predetermined resource target, wherein deleting user accounts is performed based on networked domain connectivity such that local user accounts are deleted prior to user accounts connected to a networked domain, and where user accounts from lower priority networked domains than other user accounts are deleted prior to deleting the other user accounts from higher priority networked domains, such that networked domain based user accounts that are not deleted on the shared computing device have a faster logon time than networked domain based user accounts that are deleted on the shared computing device; and

once the resource target has been reached, cease deleting user accounts as a result.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more triggers further comprise resource based triggers based on queue size.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein deleting user accounts is further prioritized based on an amount of offline storage for accounts on the shared computing device.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein deleting user accounts is further prioritized based on the number or frequency of logins for the user accounts.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein deleting user accounts is based on a likelihood that certain users using the shared computing device will login to the computing device within a shorter timeframe than other users.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising identifying a critical trigger and as a result of identifying a critical trigger, deleting user accounts in a short time frame.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising identifying a maintenance trigger and as a result of identifying a maintenance trigger, deleting user accounts when the shared computing device is idle within some predetermined criteria of idleness.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising, deleting portions of a user account and identifying those portions as online only portions of the user account while continuing to maintain other portions of the user account at the shared computing device.

18. A shared computing device comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more computer-readable storage media;

a plurality of user accounts stored on the one or more computer readable storage media;

a system state trigger service, implemented using the one or more processors and the one or more computer readable storage media, configured to manage one or more triggers, wherein at least one of the triggers is a free disk space trigger configured to identify when one or more user accounts should be deleted from the shared computing device, having a plurality of different user accounts for a plurality of different users, to comply with a predetermined resource target; and

one or more policy engines, implemented using the one or more processors and the one or more computer readable storage media, that are configured to evaluate triggers, and as a result of evaluating the one or more triggers, delete user accounts on the shared computing device to attempt to comply with the predetermined resource target, wherein deleting user accounts is performed based on networked domain connectivity such that local user accounts are deleted prior to user accounts connected to a networked domain, and where user accounts from lower priority networked domains than other user accounts are deleted prior to deleting the other user accounts from higher priority networked domains, such that user accounts that are not deleted on the shared computing device have a faster logon time than user accounts that are deleted on the shared computing device.

19. The shared computing device of claim 18, wherein the one or more triggers comprise resource triggers based on disk usage.

20. The shared computing device of claim 18, wherein the one or more triggers further comprise resource triggers based on a number of accounts on the shared computing device.