Dynamically updating themes for an operating system shell

• US 5,905,492 A
• Filed: 12/06/1996
• Issued: 05/18/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Martineau, Teresa, Isaac, Steven Alfred, Jakstadt, Eric George, Straub, Eric John
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Cao H.
• Application Number:
  US08/761,567
• Time in Patent Office: 893 Days
• Field of Search: 345/329, 345/333, 345/334, 345/335, 345/337, 345/356, 345/357, 345/762, 345/774, 345/806, 345/807, 345/339, 345/327
• US Class Current: 715/744
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A theme provides a group of multi-media resources for enhancing displays in a graphical user interface to an operating system of a computer according to a topic of the theme. The theme'"'"'s resources are periodically updated by retrieving updating resources from a remote computer at which the updating resources are stored by a theme provider, so as to provide continually updating enhancements to the graphical user interface display consistent with the theme'"'"'s topic. The theme'"'"'s resources can include hypertext templates which define the graphical user interface displays as hypertext pages, allowing the theme to provide a wide variety of enhancements to the displays including text, graphics, hyperlinks, and software components, among others. The theme also enhances a graphical user interface with a view port that plays live or locally cached information from the Internet in each of a plurality of categories, by adding a category for the theme so as to play information from the theme'"'"'s provider in the view port.

Claims

1. A system for providing an interface having locally stored periodically updating multi-media resources for creating a user perceptible environment through which the user interacts with an operating system, the system comprising:

a local store containing locally stored multi-media resources that define elements of the user perceptible environment,

a shell component of the operating system for generating the user perceptible environment using the locally stored multi-media resources;

an operating system interacting with the user through the user perceptible environment; and

an updating service for automatically periodically connecting to a remote server at which update resources reside, retrieving the update resources from the remote server, and locally storing the update resources as part of the locally stored multi-media resources in the local store;

whereby the user interacts with the operating system through a dynamically changing user perceptible environment generated from the periodically updated locally stored multi-media resources.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the locally stored multi-media resources are associated in a theme.

3. The system of claim 1 comprising:

a plurality of local stores, each containing multi-media resources associated with a different one of a plurality of themes;

a theme switcher for a user to select one of the themes, and for causing the shell to generate the user perceptible environment using the multi-media resources of the user-selected theme; and

the updating service retrieving the update resources from a remote server associated with the user-selected theme, and locally storing the update resource as part of the locally stored multi-media resources associated with the user-selected theme.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the updating service retrieves a file from the remote server, the file specifying the update resources to be locally stored by the updating service in the local store.

5. A themes application for an operating system providing an interface having locally stored periodically updating multi-media resources for creating a user perceptible environment through which the user interacts with the operating system, in which an operating system shell processes hypertext page resources into hypertext page views and shows the hypertext page views as displays in the user perceptible environment, comprising:

a plurality of groups of hypertext page resources, each group being associated with a different one of a plurality of themes; and

a theme switcher for selecting one of the themes responsive to user input, and for configuring the operating system shell to process the group of hypertext page resources associated with the selected theme into the hypertext page views shown as displays in the user perceptible environment of the operating system;

wherein the user interacts with the operating system through the hypertext pages.

6. The themes application of claim 5 further comprising:

an updating service for periodically retrieving updated hypertext page resources from a remote server into the group of hypertext page resources associated with the selected theme at the computer.

7. A computer system comprising:

an operating system having an operating system shell providing an interface having locally stored periodically updating multi-media resources for creating a user perceptible environment through which the user interacts with the operating system;

an information viewing pane associated with the user perceptible environment for viewing information retrieved from a remote content provider server on a computer network;

a channel selection control responsive to user input for selecting between a plurality of categories of the information to thereby cause information of the chosen category to be shown in the information viewing pane; and

a plurality of groups of multi-media resources, each group being associated with a different one of a plurality of themes; and

a theme switcher responsive to user input selecting one of the themes for configuring the operating system shell to apply the group of multi-media resources associated with the selected theme to the user perceptible environment, and add the selected theme as a category selectable with the channel selection control.

8. A method of enhancing a user perceptible environment through which a user interacts with an operating system in a computer, comprising:

providing a plurality of user selectable themes;

locally storing a group of resources for each of the themes, each resource defining elements of the user perceptible environment;

configuring an operating system shell to generate the user perceptible environment of the operating system using the resources of a user-selected theme;

periodically retrieving update data from a remote server on a computer network; and

updating at least the locally stored group of resources for the user-selected theme with the retrieved update data.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the resources comprise a set of files containing data defining hypertext pages, and the step of configuring the operating system shell comprises setting configuring data to cause the operating system shell to generate graphical user interface displays in the user perceptible environment containing views of the hypertext pages.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the user perceptible environment generated by the operating system shell includes a display with a view port for continually playing information from a remote source associated with one of a plurality of user-selectable channels, and wherein the step of configuring the operating system shell comprises:

adding a channel for the user-selected theme to the user-selectable channels such that user selection of the user-selected theme'"'"'s channel causes the view port to play information from a remotes source associated with the user-selected theme.

11. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the steps recited in claim 10.

12. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the steps recited in claim 8.

13. A system for providing an interface having locally stored periodically updating multi-media resources for creating a user perceptible environment through which the user interacts with an operating system, the system comprising:

means for storing multi-media resources that define elements of the user perceptible environment;

means for generating the user perceptible environment using the locally stored multi-media resources;

means for interacting with the user through the user perceptible environment; and

means for automatically periodically connecting to a remote server at which update resources reside, retrieving the update resources from the remote server, and locally storing the update resources as part of the locally stored multi-media resources in the local store;

whereby the user interacts with the operating system through a dynamically changing user perceptible environment generated from the periodically updated locally stored multi-media resources.

14. The system of claim 13, in which the locally stored multimedia resources are associated in a theme.

15. The system of claim 13, in which the multi-media resources comprise a set of files containing data defining hypertext pages, the system further comprising:

means for configuring an operating system shell to cause such shell to generate graphical user interface displays in the user perceptible environment containing views of the hypertext pages.

16. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the elements of claim 15.

17. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the elements of claim 13.

18. A themes application for an operating system providing an interface having locally stored periodically updating multi-media resources for creating a user perceptible environment through which the user interacts with the operating system, in which an operating system shell processes hypertext page resources into hypertext page views and shows the hypertext page views as displays in the user perceptible environment, comprising:

means for associating a plurality of groups of hypertext page resources with a different one of a plurality of themes;

means for selecting one of the themes responsive to user input; and

means for configuring the operating system shell to process the group of hypertext page resources associated with the selected theme into the hypertext page views shown as displays in the user perceptible environment of the operating system;

wherein the user interacts with the operating system through the hypertext pages.