METHODS FOR AUTOMATICALLY LOCATING URL-CONTAINING OR OTHER DATA-CONTAINING WINDOWS IN FROZEN BROWSER OR OTHER APPLICATION PROGRAM, SAVING CONTENTS, AND RELAUNCHING APPLICATION PROGRAM WITH LINK TO SAVED DATA

• US 6,662,310 B2
• Filed: 11/10/1999
• Issued: 12/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Clouding Corporation (Marathon Patent Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Symantec Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Lopez, Marco, Elliott, Scott C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bonzo, Bryce P.
• Application Number:
  US09/438,135
• Publication Number:
  US 20020152228A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,490 Days
• Field of Search: 714/15, 714/16, 714/20, 714/38, 707/507, 707/511
• US Class Current: 714/15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A machine-automated system tries to save vital-data of a crashed or otherwise frozen application program by: (a) identifying the apparently-frozen program; (b) identifying one or more windows within the identified program that are most likely to immediately contain data which the user is likely to consider as vital and in need of saving; and (c) instructing the frozen application program to itself transfer the data of said one or more of said identified windows to a separate, data-saving thread. A profiling database may be constructed for helping to identify the vital data-containing windows of both popular (well known) and obscure application programs. One such profiling database has ID records which define parent/child hierarchy relationships between vital data-containing windows and other windows of various application programs.

Claims

1. A machine system for automatically saving work product of frozen application programs, said machine system comprising:

(a) first means for identifying one or more windows of an application program that has recently froze, where such one or more windows most probably contain vital data worthy of saving; and

(b) second means, operatively coupled to and responsive to the first means, for instructing the application program to transfer the data of said one or more of said identified windows to a separate, data-saving thread.

2. The machine system of claim 1 wherein said first means includes:

(a.1) a database having a plurality of criteria satisfaction records, where each said criteria satisfaction record defines at least one of;

(a.1a) a parent/child hierarchy relationship between a vital data-containing window and other windows of a respective one or more application programs, and

(a.1b) a child to name of containing program relationship between a vital data-containing window and a respective one or more application programs.

3. The machine system of claim 2 wherein each said criteria satisfaction record defines at least both of said parent/child hierarchy relationship and said child to name of containing program relationship.

4. The machine system of claim 2 wherein:

(a.2) each said criteria satisfaction record is further associated with a data transfer message field that identifies a respective transfer request message stream that is to be sent to a corresponding data-saving thread for causing such a thread to receive and save the sent data.

5. A machine-implemented method for automatically saving work product of application programs that have recently froze, said machine-implemented method comprising the steps of:

(a) identifying one or more windows of an application program that has recently froze, where such one or more identified windows most probably contain vital data worthy of saving; and

(b) instructing the application program to transfer the data of said one or more of said identified windows to a separate, data-saving thread.

6. An instruction conveying device for conveying machine instructions to a programmable machine, where the conveyed instructions cause said machine to save work product of frozen application programs by carrying out a saving method comprising the steps of:

(a) identifying one or more windows of a frozen application program which most probably contain vital data in need of saving; and

(b) instructing the frozen application program to transfer the data of said one or more of said identified windows to a separate, data-saving thread.

7. An instructing signal for instructing a programmable machine to save work product of frozen application programs, said instructing signal causing the machine to carry out a saving method comprising the steps of:

(a) identifying one or more windows of a frozen and subsequently revived application program which most probably contain vital data in need of saving; and

(b) instructing the frozen application program to transfer the data of said one or more of said identified windows to a separate, data-saving thread.

8. The instructing signal of claim 7 wherein said instructing signal further causes the machine to carry out the step of:

(c) causing the data-saving thread to save the transferred data into a nonvolatile memory means.

9. The instructing signal of claim 8 wherein said saving of the transferred data into a nonvolatile memory means includes appending the transferred data to a predefined nonvolatile file.