SUPPRESSING UNWANTED UI EXPERIENCES

• US 20100100831A1
• Filed: 10/17/2008
• Published: 04/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chang, Joon, Vial, Thibaut, Whytock, Chris, Oustiougov, Maxim
• Granted Patent: US 8,578,283 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Methods to allow, suppress, or reformulate a presentation of a UI element invoked by a computer program are provided. One method includes applying an administrator-configurable heuristic to determine whether to allow a native presentation of the UI element, to suppress the native presentation of the UI element, or to enable a reformulated presentation of the UI element. The method further includes one or more of suppressing and reformulating the UI element in accordance with a determination of the heuristic.

Claims

1. A system for controlling one or more of an anticipated presentation and an unanticipated presentation of one or more UI elements on a computer system, the system comprising:

a processor;

a device-readable storage medium operatively coupled to the processor and embodying a first program of instructions, the first program of instructions enabling the processor to reconfigure one or more configurable settings of a second program of instructions to prevent an anticipated presentation of a UI element during an execution of the second program of instructions on the computer system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein reconfiguring the one or more configurable settings prevents the processor from invoking the UI element.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the second program of instructions comprises an operating system of the computer system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more configurable settings are reconfigured after a start-up of the computer system but before an OS shell of the computer system is loaded.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first program of instructions further enable the processor to disable the reconfiguring of the one or more configurable settings at a request of an administrator of the computer system.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the first program of instructions further enable the processor to determine when to disable the reconfiguring of the one or more configurable settings based on an aspect of a current user of the computer system.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first program of instructions further enable the processor to:

detect an unanticipated presentation of a UI element invoked by a third program of instructions, the same or different than the second program of instructions; and

to

determine whether to allow or to suppress the unanticipated presentation.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the first program of instructions further enable the processor to suppress the unanticipated presentation if the third program of instructions was not launched by a current user of the computer system.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the first program of instructions further enable the processor to assess a visual or audible characteristic of the UI element, and wherein the processor is configured to determine whether to allow or to suppress the unanticipated presentation based at least partly on the visual or audible characteristic.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the visual or audible characteristic is one of a plurality of characteristics assessed according to the first program of instructions to enable the processor to determine whether to allow or suppress the unanticipated presentation, and wherein the plurality of characteristics are configurable by an administrator of the computer system.

11. A system for gating an unanticipated presentation of one or more UI elements on a computer system running an OS shell, the system comprising:

a processor;

a device-readable storage medium operatively coupled to the processor and embodying a first program of instructions, the first program of instructions configured to enable the processor to apply a heuristic to determine whether to allow or suppress an unanticipated presentation of a UI element invoked by execution of a second program of instructions on the computer system;

where the heuristic includes one or more from a group consisting of;

determining whether the UI element was created by a process launched from the OS shell,

determining whether the UI element conform to a navigation experience provided by the OS shell,

determining whether the UI element load one or more system libraries for accepting user-input available to a user of the computer system,

determining whether the UI element was invoked when a process owning the UI element was already presenting a UI to the user of the computer system,

determining whether the UI element include content relevant to the user of the computer system.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first program of instructions enable the processor to modify the heuristic directly, in response to a request of an administrator of the computer system, and, to modify the heuristic adaptively according to a record of administrator-requested modification of the heuristic.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the first program of instructions further enable the processor to adaptively modify the heuristic based on a record of user termination of the second program of instructions pursuant to suppression of the unanticipated presentation.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the first program of instructions further enable the processor to adaptively modify the heuristic based on a query-and-response of a current user of the computer system, wherein the second program of instructions was launched by the current user.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the first program of instructions further enable the first processor to determine to allow the unanticipated presentation when one or more of the unanticipated presentation and the UI element are referenced on a white list associated with the first program of instructions.

16. A method to control a native presentation of a UI element invoked by a computer program, the computer program running on a computer system having a display surface, an operating system, and an OS shell, the method comprising:

applying an administrator-configurable heuristic to determine whether to allow the native presentation of the UI element, to suppress the native presentation of the UI element, or to enable a reformulated presentation of the UI element, where the native presentation is allowed if it is determined to be consistent with a user-navigation experience provided by the OS shell; and

one or more of suppressing and reformulating the UI element in accordance with a determination of the heuristic.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said suppressing comprises executing a first action from a group consisting of:

moving the UI element outside of a viewable zone of the display surface,

moving the UI element below an opaque UI element on the display surface,

sending a request to the computer program to close the UI element,

sending a request to one or more of the operating system and computer program to end the computer program, and

disabling the display surface.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising executing a second action from the group if the first action fail to suppress the native presentation of the UI element within an predetermined period of time.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein a sequence of actions executed is determined partly based on an analysis of a record of a success of one or more of the actions from the group in suppressing the native presentation of the UI element or similar UI elements.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising reformulating the contents of the UI element in a manner consistent with a navigation experience provided by the OS shell, and presenting on the computer system a reformulated UI element including at least some content from the UI element.