Capturing and restoring application state after unexpected application shutdown

• US 7,716,461 B2
• Filed: 08/21/2006
• Issued: 05/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wu, Jixin, Nizar, Shaheeda Parveen, Downer, Joel, Dev Sareen, Chaitanya
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRAN, VINCENT HUY
• Application Number:
  US11/507,648
• Publication Number:
  US 20070162785A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,359 Days
• Field of Search: 713/1, 713/340, 714/1, 714/2, 714/15
• US Class Current: 713/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/24 Resetting means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1402 Saving, restoring, recovering or retrying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4418 Suspend and resume; Hibernate and awake

Abstract

During unexpected application shutdowns, application settings states are captured, and displayed application states are restored upon subsequent application restart. User data displayed prior to shutdown may also be restored to pre-shutdown states. Data representing in-use application settings states and in-use user data are stored on a periodic basis, or upon notification of an impending application shutdown. Upon restart, any application deployed prior to shutdown is re-deployed according to the stored application settings states for each application, and any in-use documents or other data may be re-deployed according to the stored user data.

Claims

1. A method of restoring application state after application shutdown, the method comprising:

storing application settings data, the application settings data representing an application settings state of an application operating on a computing device, the application settings state including data that represents a position of a displayed user interface component of the application and a size of the displayed user interface component;

automatically determining, when the application is restarted at the computer device, whether the application experienced an unexpected shutdown, an unexpected shutdown being a shutdown of the application occurring under circumstances in which a user of the application did not expect the application to shut down; and

in response to determining that the application experience an unexpected shutdown, automatically retrieving the application setting data at the computing device and automatically restarting the application on the computer device to the application settings state represented by the application settings data.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein storing the application settings data includes storing data representing any displayed application user interface components, including data representing any displayed sub-components of the any displayed application user interface components;

and

wherein restarting the application to the application settings state includes deploying the any displayed user interface components after restarting the application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the application settings data includes automatically storing the application settings data at a periodic frequency during operation of the application.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein the method further comprises determining, at the computing device, whether a scheduled shutdown of the application is to occur;

and

wherein storing the application settings includes storing the application settings data in response to determining that a scheduled shutdown of the application is to occur, the scheduled shutdown of the application being an unexpected shutdown of the application.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising prior to determining whether the application experienced an unexpected shutdown, performing, at the computing device, the scheduled shutdown of the application.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein performing the scheduled shutdown comprises performing the scheduled shutdown when a system administrator uses a restart manager module to shut down the application.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing a set of user data, the set of user data containing all user data deployed via the application prior to an unexpected shutdown of the application.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein storing the set of user data includes storing the set of user data at a periodic frequency during operation of the application.

9. The method of claim 7,

wherein the method further comprises determining, at the computing device, whether a scheduled shutdown of the application is to occur, the scheduled shutdown being an unexpected shutdown;

and

wherein storing the set of user data includes storing the set of user data in response to determining that the scheduled shutdown of the application is to occur.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises after restarting the application, deploying via the application, the set of user data.

11. The method of claim 10, prior to deploying the set of user data, retrieving the set of user data.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein storing the set of user data includes storing electronic calendar data to an electronic calendar data storage site.

13. A computer storage medium containing computer executable instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method of restoring application state after application shutdown, the method comprising:

automatically storm application settings data, the application settings data representing an application settings state of an application, the application settings state including data that represents a position of a displayed user interface component of the application and a size of the displayed user interface component;

storing a set of user data, the set of user data containing any user data displayed via the application;

automatically determining whether the application experienced an unexpected shutdown, an unexpected shutdown being a shutdown of the application occurring under circumstances in which a user of the application did not expect the application to shut down; and

in response to determining that the application experienced an unexpected shutdown;

automatically retrieving the application settings data;

automatically retrieving the set of user data;

automatically restarting the application to an application settings state according to the application settings data; and

automatically displaying via the application, the user data contained in the set of user data.

14. The computer storage medium of claim 13,

wherein automatically storing the application settings data includes automatically storing data representing any displayed application user interface components, including data representing a position, a size and any displayed sub-components of the any displayed application user interface components;

and

wherein automatically restarting the application includes deploying the any displayed user interface components after restarting the application.

15. The computer storage medium of claim 13, wherein automatically storing the application settings data includes automatically storing the application settings data at a periodic frequency during operation of the application.

16. The computer storage medium of claim 13,

wherein the method further comprises automatically determining whether an unexpected shutdown of the application is to occur;

and

wherein automatically storing the application settings data includes automatically storing the application settings data in response to determining that an unexpected shutdown of the application is to occur.

17. The computer storage medium of claim 13, wherein automatically storing the set of user data includes automatically storing electronic calendar data to an electronic calendar data storage site.

18. A computer storage medium containing computer executable instructions which when, executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method of restoring application state after application shutdown, the method comprising:

automatically storing applications settings data to an electronic calendar data storage site, the application settings data representing an application settings state of an electronic calendaring application operating on the computer, the application settings data including data that represents;

a position of a first displayed user interface component of the electronic calendar application, and

a size of the first displayed user interface component, and

automatically storing user data to the electronic calendar data storage site, the user data being data deployed via the electronic calendar application within the first displayed user interface component;

after storing the application settings data and the deployed user data, performing a scheduled shutdown of the electronic calendar application, the scheduled shutdown being scheduled by a system administrator, the scheduled shutdown being an unexpected shutdown, wherein the unexpected shutdown is a shutdown of the electronic calendaring application occurring under circumstances in which a user of the electronic calendaring application did not expect the electronic calendaring application to shut down;

after performing the scheduled shutdown of the electronic calendar application, loading a software patch that modifies the electronic calendar application;

after loading the software patch, automatically determining whether the electronic calendar application has experienced an unexpected shutdown;

in response to determining that the electronic calendar application has experienced an unexpected shutdown;

retrieving the application settings data;

in response to retrieving the application settings data, restarting the electronic calendar application to the application settings state represented by the application settings data;

retrieving the user data from the electronic calendar data storage site; and

displaying, via the electronic calendar application, the user data in a second user interface component at the position of the first displayed user interface component, the second user interface component having the size of the first displayed user interface component.

19. The computer storage medium of claim 18,

wherein the method further comprises automatically determining that the scheduled shutdown is to occur;

and

wherein automatically storing the set of user data includes automatically storing the set of user data to the electronic calendar data storage site in response to determining that the scheduled shutdown is to occur.

20. The computer storage medium of claim 18, wherein automatically storing the set of user data includes automatically storing the set of user data to the electronic calendar data storage site at a periodic frequency during operation of the electronic calendar application.