Compositing desktop window manager

• US 8,059,137 B2
• Filed: 11/05/2010
• Issued: 11/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Swedberg, Gregory D., Bermudez, Gerardo, Hanggie, Scott, Ligameri, Mark Richard, Melander, Greg Scott, Tan, Victor
• Primary Examiner(s): Tung; Kee M
• Assistant Examiner(s): AMIN, JWALANT B
• Application Number:
  US12/940,514
• Publication Number:
  US 20110072391A1
• Time in Patent Office: 375 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 345/619
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04804 Transparency, e.g. transparent or translucent windows
• 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 method and system for rendering a desktop on a computer using a composited desktop model operating system are disclosed. A composited desktop window manager, upon receiving content information from application programs, draws the window to a buffer memory for future reference, and takes advantage of advanced graphics hardware and visual effects to render windows based on content on which they are drawn. The windows may also be rendered based on environment variables including virtual light sources. The frame portion of each window may be generated by pixel shading a bitmap having the appearance of frosted glass based on the content of the desktop on top of which the frame is displayed. Legacy support is provided so that the operating system can draw and render windows generated by legacy applications to look consistent with non-legacy application windows.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for rendering a desktop window in a graphical user interface of an operating system shell, comprising:

receiving application content to display in a window in the graphical user interface; and

displaying at least a portion of the application content in an opaque content portion of the window, the window having a translucent frame portion, wherein the translucent frame portion of the window comprises a likeness of glass, wherein displaying further comprises;

applying a texture to a mesh,

receiving a user input to resize the window, wherein resizing the window further comprises;

dividing the mesh into three regions per mesh dimension, for each region, maintaining offsets to mesh vertices in any dimension by which the region is bounded by a bounding box of the window, and scaling mesh vertices in any dimension by which the region is not bounded by the bounding box of the window, and

determining by a vertex resizing filter function the displacement direction and magnitude in each dimension for every member vertex.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the translucent frame portion of the window comprises a likeness of frosted glass.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the regions are equally sized.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the regions are not equally sized.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the regions bounded by the bounding box are as small as necessary to encompass material that should not be scaled.

6. A computer storage medium not a transitory propagating signal per se, the computer storage medium storing computer executable instructions that cause a computer to perform a method for rendering a desktop window in a graphical user interface of an operating system shell, comprising:

receiving, at a compositing desktop window manager (CDWM), application content from advanced applications in a bottom-to-top order, to display the application content received in a bottom-to-top order in windows corresponding to the advanced applications in the graphical user interface;

receiving, at a desktop window manager (DWM), application content from legacy applications in a top-to-bottom order to display the application content received in a top-to-bottom order in windows corresponding to the legacy application in the graphical user interface, wherein the DWM redirects the application content received to the CDWM;

stripping out application content received from the legacy applications, wherein the legacy texture of the primary content is retained but legacy window frames, legacy borders, or legacy captions of the legacy application content are ignored;

converting the stripped application content to a graphical representation; and

displaying at least a portion of the application content in the windows, the windows having translucent frame portions, wherein displaying further comprises;

the CDWM modeling the window by applying a texture to a mesh, receiving user input to resize the window,

dividing the mesh into three regions per mesh dimension,

for each region, maintaining offsets of mesh vertices in any dimension by which the region is bounded by a bounding box of the window, and scaling mesh vertices in any dimension by which the region is not bounded by the bounding box of the window, and

determining by a vertex resizing filter function the displacement direction and magnitude in each dimension for every member vertex.

7. The computer storage medium of claim 6, wherein the displaying step comprises a pixel shader content on top of which the frame portion is rendered.

8. The computer storage medium of claim 6, wherein the translucent frame portion of the window comprises a likeness of glass.

9. The computer storage medium of claim 6, wherein the translucent frame portion of the window comprises a likeness of frosted glass.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the receiving step comprises receiving application content information originating from an instance of a legacy application program.

11. The computer readable medium of claim of claim 6 wherein the regions are equally sized.

12. The computer readable medium of claim of claim 6, wherein the regions are not equally sized.

13. The computer readable medium of claim of claim 6, wherein the regions bounded by the bounding box are as small as necessary to encompass material that should not be scaled.

14. A computer implemented method for rendering a desktop window in a graphical user interface of an operating system shell, comprising:

receiving application content to display in a window; and

displaying at least a portion of the application content in a content portion of the window having a frame portion, wherein the displaying further comprises;

rendering spectral highlights on the frame portion based on a virtual light source by a compositing desktop window manager configured to provide transparency, shadows, lighting effects, bump mapping, and environmental mapping via a pixel shader that manipulates pixels of the application content based on desktop-global properties and window-material properties,

applying a texture to a mesh,

receiving a user input to resize the window, wherein resizing the window further comprises;

dividing the mesh into three regions per mesh dimension, for each region, maintaining offsets to mesh vertices in any dimension by which the region is bounded by a bounding box of the window, and scaling mesh vertices in any dimension by which the region is not bounded by the bounding box of the window, and

determining, by a vertex resizing filter function, the displacement direction and magnitude in each dimension for every member vertex.