ORGANIZATION OF APPLICATION STATE AND CONFIGURATION SETTINGS

• US 20110289478A1
• Filed: 08/08/2011
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zachwieja, Stephan J., Bernabeu-Auban, Jose M., Dossick, Stephen E., Peschel-Gallee, Frank V.
• Granted Patent: US 8,352,915 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/121
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Abstract

The operating system manages software entities by creating a construct called a context that organizes and manages software-related state and configuration settings of applications. A context may comprise an installation service, a configuration service and an activation service. Contexts can be linked or arranged hierarchically to form parent-child relationships. Hierarchies may be used to affect accessibility of software items, to satisfy dependencies, to control the visibility/invisibility of software items, to provide access to configuration settings and to override software availability, dependencies and configuration settings. An override may be applied to set policy when more than one context has a configuration setting, dependency or access to a software entity.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a process request for a first software item, the first software item comprising program code and metadata associated with the program code;

using an operating system of a computer system to create a context for managing the first software item as well as additional software items that are executed in the computer system;

storing the program code in an installation store of the context; and

storing configuration settings for the first software item in a configuration store of the context.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising listing unavailable required software items.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the context is a first context and further comprises creating a second context and linking the first context to the second context, the first context being a parent of the second context.

5. The system of claim 1, the processor being further configured to list unavailable required software items.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the context is a first context and wherein the operating system is further configured to create a second context and link the first context to the second context, the first context being a parent of the second context.

4. A system comprising:

a processor configured to receive a process request for a first software item, the first software item comprising program code and metadata associated with the program code;

an operating system configured to create a context for managing the first software item as well as additional software items that are executed in the system; and

a computer-readable storage medium configured to store the program code in an installation store of the context, the computer readable storage medium being further configured to store configuration settings for the first software item in a configuration store of the context.

7. A computer-readable storage medium having program code stored thereon configured to cause the computing environment to:

receive a process request for a first software item, the first software item comprising program code and metadata associated with the program code;

use an operating system of a computer system to create a context for managing the first software item as well as additional software items that are executed in the computer system;

store the program code in an installation store of the context; and

store configuration settings for the first software item in a configuration store of the context.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the program code is further configured to cause the computing environment to list unavailable required software items.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the context is a first context and wherein the program code is further configured to cause the computing environment to create a second context and link the first context to the second context, the first context being a parent of the second context.