Method and system for analyzing the impact of a software update

• US 20060117310A1
• Filed: 11/24/2004
• Published: 06/01/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wang, Yi-Min, Dunagan, John, Verbowski, Chad E., Roussev, Roussi A., Daniels, Bradford Ruffin
• Granted Patent: US 7,614,046 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/658 Incremental updates; Differential updates

Abstract

A method and system for analyzing the impact on software of an update to a software system is provided. The impact analysis system identifies resources that are affected by an update to the software system and identifies resources that are accessed by various software components during execution of the software components. To analyze the effects of an update, the impact analysis system identifies those accessed resources of the software components that are affected by the update as being impacted resources. The impact analysis system considers those software components that access the impacted resources to be impacted software components. The impact analysis system provides a user interface through which a user can view and analyze the impact of an update.

Claims

1. A method for determining impact on software components of updates to a software system, the method comprising:

identifying resources affected by an update to the software system;

during execution of a software component, identifying resources accessed by the software component; and

when an accessed resource is also an affected resource, indicating that the software component is impacted by the update to the software system.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein a resource is executable code.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein a resource is a registry entry.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the update is a patch to the software system.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifying of the affected resources includes receiving an indication of the affected resources along with the update.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifying of the affected resources is based on a change log generated when the update is installed.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifying of the accessed resources includes logging accesses to resources by the software component during execution of the software component.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the logging occurs across multiple executions of the software component.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifying of accessed resources includes identifying resources used by the software component during execution of the software component.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the resources used by the software component include a software module loaded into memory.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the indicating includes providing an indication of frequency at which a resource is accessed by the software component.

12. The method of claim 1 including providing an indication of critical components and, when the affected components do not include a critical component, automatically installing the update to the software system.

13. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to determine impact of an update to a software system, by a method comprising:

during execution of a software component, identifying resources accessed by the software component; and

when an accessed resource is affected by the update, indicating that the accessed resource is impacted by the update to the software system.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the update is a patch to the software system.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein when the accessed resource is affected by the update, indicating that the software component is impacted by the update.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 including receiving an indication of the affected resources along with the update.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the affected resources are identified based on a change log generated when the update is installed.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the identifying of the accessed resources includes logging accesses to resources by the software component during execution of the software component.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18 wherein the logging occurs across multiple executions of the software component.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the identifying of accessed resources includes identifying resources used by the software component during execution of the software component.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein the resources used by the software component include a software module loaded into memory.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 including providing an indication of critical components and, when the impacted components do not include a critical component, automatically installing the update to the software system.

23. A method for managing installation of updates to software systems, the method comprising:

during execution of software components, logging resources accessed by the software components;

receiving an indication of an update for a software system including an identification of resources affected by the update; and

identifying software components impacted by the received update based on whether a resource accessed by the software components as indicated by the logging is affected by the update.

24. The method of claim 23 including automatically installing the update when no critical resource of a software component is affected by the update.

25. The method of claim 23 including determining whether to install the update based on analysis of the identified software components.

26. The method of claim 23 wherein the software system is an operating system and the software components are applications.

27. The method of claim 23 wherein the resources include registry entries.

28. The method of claim 23 wherein the resources include files.

29. The method of claim 23 wherein the resources include other software components with which a software component communicates.

30. A method for determining impact of an installation update to a software system, the method comprising:

identifying resources affected by an installed update;

identifying resources currently being accessed by a software component; and

when an accessed resource is an affected resource, determining whether the accessed resource is a version of the resource corresponding to the update.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein the resources are software modules.

32. The method of claim 30 wherein the identifying of the affected resources is based on a log generated during installation of the update.

33. The method of claim 30 wherein the identifying of the accessed resources includes requesting an operating system to provide an indication of resources of the executing software component.