System tour generator

• US 6,377,253 B1
• Filed: 11/30/1998
• Issued: 04/23/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Round Rock Research LLC
• Original Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Williams, Robert A., Hoffman, Robert R. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hailu, Tadesse
• Application Number:
  US09/201,330
• Publication Number:
  US 20020054061A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,240 Days
• Field of Search: 345/328, 345/336, 345/338, 345/357, 345/966, 345/965, 345/967, 707/501, 717/11, 713/100
• US Class Current: 715/700
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems

Abstract

A technique to generate a web-based presentation is described that includes obtaining an entry from a feature table (the entry having an identification portion and an installation portion), and generating at least part of the presentation based on the installation portion if the entry corresponds to a loaded feature. At least a part of the presentation may also be generated based on entries not associated with operational features of a computer system. The method may be automatically executed on initial system power-up, or on user command.

Claims

1. A method usable with a computer system, comprising:

sequencing through entries of a feature table, at least some of the different entries being associated with different features that may be present in the computer system;

for each entry encountered in the sequencing, determining if the entry is associated with one of the features; and

using information indicated by the entries that are associated with the features of the computer system to generate a viewable presentation on the computer system describing the associated features.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the using comprises:

executing hypertext markup language instructions that are located in the entries.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the using comprises:

inserting files from the entries into a main presentation tour document.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein some of the entries indicate information that does not correspond to one of the features.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving the entries from a long-term storage device.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising deleting the feature table from the long-term storage device after the generation of the presentation.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises:

using a detection portion of each entry, the detection portion indicating how to determine if the entry corresponds to a feature or a non-feature.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is performed the first time an end user powers on a computer system.