CENTRALIZED MANAGEMENT OF APPLICATIONS AND DESKTOP PREFERENCES WITHOUT REQUIRING CONFIGURATION OF CLIENTSIDE OPERATING SYSTEMS

• US 20090043840A1
• Filed: 06/23/2008
• Published: 02/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DeskStream, Inc. (WorldDesk Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: DeskStream, Inc. (WorldDesk Ltd.)
• Inventors: Cherukuri, Rao, Prabhat, Kumar, Guruswamy, Karthik, Kumar, Santosh
• Granted Patent: US 8,433,757 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management

Abstract

A method, apparatus and system of centralized management of applications and desktop preferences without requiring configuration of client-side operating systems are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of a rich client device includes accessing an application installed on a server, and executing the application from the rich client device without installing the application on the rich client device (e.g., that may mean that an operating system of the rich client device is not modified to perform the function calls between the application and the operating system) when requested by a user of the rich client device through a binary module (e.g., the binary module may include required resources between the application and the operating system including a file system data, a Dynamic-Link library (DLL) data, etc.) of the server that emulates a set of function calls between the application and an operating system of the rich client device.

Claims

1. A method of a rich client device, comprising:

accessing an application installed on a server; and

executing the application from the rich client device without installing the application on the rich client device when requested by a user of the rich client device through a binary module of the server that emulates a set of function calls between the application and an operating system of the rich client device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the without installing the application on the rich client device means that the operating system of the rich client device is not modified to perform the function calls between the application and the operating system.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

downloading an application component to the rich client device when requested by a user of the rich client device to a memory of the rich client device.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

deleting the application component from the memory of the rich client device when the application executing on the rich client device is inactive to prevent unauthorized duplication and access of the application.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining, through the server, that a thin client device is coupled with the server; and

executing the application directly from a virtual machine through the binary module of the server emulating a set of function calls between the application and an operating system of the server without downloading the application to the thin client device.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

recreating a look and feel of a desktop preference of the user through a virtual desktop module of the server.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the desktop preference includes at least one an arrangement of files and folders in a file system, a color scheme of the file system, a background of the file system, an icon of the file system, an access control preference of the file system, a security preference of the file system, a bookmark associated with the user, a temporary file of the file system, a configuration of applications associated with the user, and a usability preference associated with the user.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

capturing and storing the desktop preference to a user specific area of the server when the desktop preference is in use on at least one of the thin client device and the rich client device; and

presenting the look and feel of the desktop preference of the user through at least one of the rich client device, the thin client device, and other devices based on an authentication of the user with a central policy management module of a network coupled with the server, the rich client device, and the thin client device.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein a template module of the binary module is used to segment an application space from a user profile space on the server, and wherein each operating system of the different client devices is a same type of operating system as a selected one optimized to operate through the binary module.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising enabling an administrator of the central policy management module of the network to use the template module to combine desktops of multiple users of different client devices into a single virtualization layer such that the administrator is able to simultaneously and concurrently update the application across each of the multiple users, wherein the update includes at least one of a patch installation to the application and an upgrade of the application.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the binary module includes required resources between the application and the operating system including a registry data, a file system data, and a Dynamic-Link library (DLL) data.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

applying a rules engine module of the binary module to determine whether a particular function call needs to be routed to which of the operating system of the rich client device and the required resources of the binary module.

13. The method of claim 1 in a form of a machine-readable medium embodying a set of instructions that, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform the method of claim 1.

14. A system, comprising:

a server having an application installed independent of any client-side operating system through a binary module of the server;

a network; and

a rich client device to access the application installed on the server through the network and to execute the application from the rich client device without installing the application on the rich client device when requested by a user of the rich client device through the binary module of the server that emulates a set of function calls between the application and the operating system of the rich client device.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the without installing the application on the rich client device means that the operating system of the rich client device is not modified to perform the function calls between the application and the operating system.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the rich client device to download the application to the rich client device when requested by a user of the rich client device to a memory of the rich client device, and to delete the application from the memory of the rich client device when the rich client device is inactive to prevent unauthorized duplication and access of the application.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein the server to determine that the rich client device is a thin client device, and to execute the application directly from a virtual machine through the binary module emulating a set of function calls between the application and the operating system of the server without downloading the application to the thin client device when the rich client device is the thin client device.

18. A method of a server, comprising:

determining that a coupled device is at least one of a rich client device and a thin client device based on at least one a memory, microprocessor, and an identification information of the coupled device;

executing an application from the rich client device without installing the application on the rich client device when requested by a user of the rich client device through a binary module of the server that emulates a set of function calls between the application and an operating system of the rich client device; and

executing the application directly from a virtual machine through the binary module emulating a set of function calls between the application and an operating system of the server without downloading the application to the thin client device when requested by the user of the thin client device.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

recreating a look and feel of a desktop preference of the user through a virtual desktop module of the server, wherein the desktop preference includes at least one an arrangement of files and folders in a file system, a color scheme of the file system, a background of the file system, an icon of the file system, an access control preference of the file system, a security preference of the file system, a bookmark associated with the user, a temporary file of the file system, a configuration of applications associated with the user, and a usability preference associated with the user; and

presenting the look and feel of the desktop preference of the user through the rich client device based on an authentication of the user with a central policy management module of a network coupled with the server and the rich client device; and

applying a template module to segment an application space from a user profile space on the server.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising enabling an administrator of the central policy management module of the network to use the template module to combine desktops of multiple users of different client devices into a single virtualization layer such that the administrator is able to simultaneously and concurrently update the application across each of the multiple users, wherein the update includes at least one of a patch installation to the application and an upgrade of the application.