Seamless integration of non-native widgets and windows with dynamically scalable resolution into native operating system

• US 8,117,554 B1
• Filed: 03/15/2009
• Issued: 02/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Parallels International GmbH (Corel Holdings LP)
• Original Assignee: Parallels Holdings Limited (HNA Technology Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Kuzkin, Maxim A., Koryakin, Alexey B., Omelyanchuk, Andrey A., Tormasov, Alexander G., Grechishkin, Alexander A., Malykhin, Sergei
• Primary Examiner(s): Roswell, Michael
• Application Number:
  US12/404,312
• Time in Patent Office: 1,066 Days
• Field of Search: 711/6, 703/23, 345/521, 715/764, 715846-847, 717/109, 718/1, 719/328
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A method, system and computer program product recorded on a computer-readable medium for execution on at least one processor, for seamless integration of a non-native application into a host OS, including launching a first Virtual Execution Environment (VEE) on a computing system that has a host operating system and a host desktop displayed to a user; displaying a window corresponding to the VEE on the host desktop; upon a user invoking a user application that is non-native to both the host OS and the first VEE, (a) installing a second VEE that is compatible with the user application, (b) installing the user application into the second VEE, (c) launching the application inside the second VEE, and (d) displaying the non-native application window within a window of the second VEE. The VEE can be a Virtual Private Server or a Virtual Machine.

Claims

1. A method for integration of non-native widgets into a host operating system (OS), comprising:

creating a Virtual Machine (VM) running a guest OS on a computer system with the host OS;

launching the VM on the computer system with a host desktop being displayed to a user;

displaying an icon corresponding to the VM on the host desktop; and

displaying a widget running on the guest OS on the host desktop upon a user clicking on the icon, the widget being an interactive tool that provides a single-purpose service,

wherein a guest desktop of the guest OS and any non-native application window is masked out, except for the widget portion, so that the widget is virtualized and presented to a user as a native widget that is seamlessly integrated into the host OS.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of widgets is displayed on the host desktop.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the widget is a web applet downloaded into the VM.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of VMs are installed and launched on the computer system and wherein each VM is running at least one widget on its guest OS.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the widget is displayed on the host desktop upon launching the VM.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein an icon corresponding to the widget is added to any of a Taskbar, Dashboard, Sidebar, Menu Bar, Quick Launch area and Dock Bar of the host desktop.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the widget is displayed on the host desktop upon the user clicking on the icon.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the widget is displayed with a skin selected by the user in an irregular-shaped window.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the widget receives information for display to a user from a local non-native application.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the widget receives information for display to a user from an application that runs on a remote computer and that interfaces to non-native client-side code.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the widget is displayed in a non-rectangular window.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein all widgets appear on a screen when the VM is activated.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the widget is activated by clicking on a corresponding icon on the host desktop.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein clicking on the corresponding icon activates the VM.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying multiple non-native widgets on the host desktop, wherein a single icon on the host desktop designates all non-native widgets from a particular VM.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying multiple non-native widgets on the host desktop, wherein a single icon on the host desktop designates all non-native widgets, including non-native widgets from multiple VMs.

17. A non-transitory computer useable recording medium having computer executable program logic stored thereon for executing on a processor, the computer executable program logic including code for implementing the steps of:

creating a Virtual Machine (VM) running a guest OS on a computer system with the host OS;

launching the VM on the computer system with a host desktop being displayed to a user;

displaying an icon corresponding to the VM on the host desktop; and

displaying a widget running on the guest OS on the host desktop upon a user clicking on the icon, the widget being an interactive tool that provides a single-purpose service,

wherein a guest desktop of the guest OS and any non-native application window is masked out, except for the widget portion, so that the widget is virtualized and presented to a user as a native widget that is seamlessly integrated into the host OS.

18. A system for integration of non-native widgets into a host operating system (OS), the system including a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, and computer code executing on the processor and loaded into the memory, the computer code executing the steps of:

creating a Virtual Machine (VM) running a guest OS on a computer system with the host OS;

launching the VM on the computer system with a host desktop being displayed to a user;

displaying an icon corresponding to the VM on the host desktop; and

displaying a widget running on the guest OS on the host desktop upon a user clicking on the icon, the widget being an interactive tool that provides a single-purpose service,

wherein a guest desktop of the guest OS and any non-native application window is masked out, except for the widget portion, so that the widget is virtualized and presented to a user as a native widget that is seamlessly integrated into the host OS.

19. A method for integration of non-native widgets into a host operating system (OS), the method comprising:

starting a Virtual Machine (VM) on a computer system with the host OS, the VM having a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) and a Hypervisor;

running a guest API and a conversion API on the VM;

launching the VM on the computer system with a host desktop being displayed to a user, the host desktop displaying a dashboard with objects supported by the host API running on the host OS;

displaying a list of widgets supported by the guest API, the widgets being interactive tools that provide a single-purpose service;

selecting, in response to a user command, the widgets to be virtualized and added to the dashboard;

converting, by the conversion API, the selected widgets and adding them to the host desktop,

wherein any non-selected widgets are masked out; and

displaying the selected widgets to a user as native dashboard objects that are seamlessly integrated into the host OS.