Device settings restore point

• US 8,352,784 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2007
• Issued: 01/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Burg, David, Sadovsky, Vlad
• Primary Examiner(s): Riad, Amine
• Application Number:
  US11/957,514
• Publication Number:
  US 20090158295A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,849 Days
• Field of Search: 714/6.31
• US Class Current: 714/6.31
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/554 involving event detection and direct action
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/629 to features or functions of an application

Abstract

A method and a device may be provided for saving and restoring one or more settings associated with the device. The one or more settings may be saved and changed before performing a task. After completion of the task, or after a determined failure of the task to complete, the one or more settings may be restored. Communications may be exchanged between a host and the device to create a restore point for saving the one or more settings, to change any of the one or more settings before performing the task, and to restore the one or more settings after completion of the task, or after determining the failure of the task to complete. The device may create and store the one or more settings in a restore point in the device, or may send the one or more settings to the host for storing.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method for a host to interact with a first device, the machine-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a driver residing in a processing device upon which the host or a meta-host resides, a first communication from the first device;

determining, by the driver, whether the first device is capable of understanding a command for creating a restore point and a command for restoring at least one setting associated with the first device from a restore point based on a presence or an absence of a code in the received first communication, a result of the determining affecting communications between the host or the meta-host and the first device with respect to creating the restore point and restoring the at least one setting of the first device from the restore point;

sending at least one second communication from one of the host or the meta-host to the first device to cause creation of a restore point for saving at least one setting associated with the first device;

sending at least one third communication from the host to the first device to change the at least one setting associated with the first device;

sending at least one fourth communication from the meta-host to the first device to restore the at least one setting of the first device when the meta-host detects that the host communicating with the first device terminated unexpectedly; and

sending the at least one fourth communication from the host to the first device to restore the at least one setting of the first device after the host terminates normally, wherein;

when the driver determines that the first device is capable of understanding the command for creating a restore point and the command for restoring at least one setting associated with the first device from a restore point, the at least one second communication includes only one or more communications other than a request for the at least one setting associated with the first device.

2. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

when the driver determines that the first device is capable of understanding the command for creating a restore point and the command for restoring at least one setting associated with the first device from the restore point, the sending of the at least one second communication from one of the host or the meta-host to the first device to cause creation of a restore point, further comprises;

sending a communication to the first device to cause the first device to create the restore point in a FLASH RAM associated with the first device.

3. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein when the driver determines that the first device is capable of understanding the command for creating a restore point and the command for restoring at least one setting associated with the first device from the restore point, the at least one fourth communication includes a request for the first device to restore the at least one setting from the restore point.

4. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the host and the first device are capable of changing the one or more settings associated with the first device, and

communications among the meta-host, the first device, and the host use a well-known protocol and a set of formats describing communication methods and individual or packaged settings.

5. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the at least one third communication and the at least one fourth communication include respective digital signatures,

the at least one setting remains unchanged when the digital signature included in the at least one third communication is invalid, and

the at least one setting is not restored when the digital signature included in the at least one fourth communication is invalid.

6. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

when the driver determines that the first device is not capable of understanding the command for creating a restore point and the command for restoring at least one setting associated with the first device from the restore point, the sending of at least one second communication from the host to the first device to cause creation of a restore point, further comprises;

sending, by the host, at least one fifth communication to the first device to obtain the at least one setting from the first device, and

storing, by the host, the at least one setting in a storage device of the processing device on which the host resides; and

the machine-implemented method further comprises;

sending, from the host, at least one sixth communication, including the stored at least one setting, to the first device for the first device to restore the at least one setting.

7. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

when the driver determines that the first device is capable of understanding the command for creating a restore point and the command for restoring at least one setting associated with the first device from the restore point, performing;

receiving a request from the first device for storage, in response to the sending of the at least one second communication;

allocating, by the host, the storage in response to receiving the request for the storage;

sending, from the host to the first device, a confirmation that the storage is allocated;

receiving from the first device, in response to the sending of the confirmation that the storage is allocated, the at least one setting;

storing, by the host, the received at least one setting in the restore point in the storage;

receiving, by the host, a request from the first device for contents of the restore point; and

sending, by the host, the contents of the restore point to the first device, the first device being arranged to restore the at least one setting from the contents of the restore point.

8. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending, by the host, a firmware upgrade to the first device, wherein

the at least one setting associated with the first device includes at least a portion of firmware associated with the first device before the firmware upgrade.

9. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

acting, by the host, as a pass-through proxy to pass a firmware upgrade, received by the host, to the first device without the host storing the firmware upgrade.

10. A device comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory connected to the at least one processor, the memory comprising instructions for the at least one processor of the device to perform a method, the method comprising;

determining whether the device has storage available for creating a restore point, in response to the device receiving a request from a host for the device to create the restore point;

sending a first communication to the host to request storage when the device determines that the device has no storage available for creating the restore point;

receiving a second communication from the host confirming that the storage has been allocated in response to the sending a first communication;

sending at least one third communication to the host after receiving the second communication, the at least one third communication including at least one setting associated with the device;

receiving a fourth communication from the host confirming that the at least one setting has been stored in the allocated storage, in response to the sending at least one third communication to the host;

changing the at least one setting associated with the device, in response to receiving a request to change the at least one setting from the host; and

restoring, by the device, the at least one setting from the restore point, in response to receiving a request from the host for the device to restore the at least one setting, the restoring the at least one setting from the restore point further comprising;

sending, by the device, a fifth communication to the host to request contents of the allocated storage, the contents including the at least one setting;

receiving, by the device, the contents of the allocated storage from the host in response to the sending a fifth communication to the host; and

sending, by the device, a sixth communication to the host confirming restoration of the at least one setting.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

creating the restore point in a FLASH RAM component of the device when the determining whether the device has storage available for creating a restore point determines that the device has the storage available for creating the restore point.

12. The device of claim 10, wherein the restoring the at least one setting from the restore point, further comprises:

verifying whether a requester making the request for the device to restore the at least one setting from the restore point is authorized, and

restoring the at least one setting from the restore point only when the requester is verified as being authorized.

13. The device of claim 10, wherein the restoring the at least one setting from the restore point, further comprises:

verifying whether a requester for the device to restore the at least one setting from the restore point is authorized by validating a digital signature included with the request for the device to restore the at least one setting, and

restoring the at least one setting from the restore point only when the digital signature is verified to be valid.

14. A machine-implemented method for saving and restoring at least one setting associated with a first device, the machine-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a driver residing in a processing device upon which a host resides, a communication from the first device;

determining, by the driver, whether the first device is capable of understanding a command for creating a restore point and a command for restoring at least one setting associated with the first device from a restore point based on a presence or an absence of a code in the received communication, a result of the determining affecting communications between the host and the first device with respect to creating the restore point and restoring the at least one setting of the first device from the restore point;

sending a first request, from the host to the first device, to create the restore point for saving the at least one setting associated with the first device;

sending a second request, from the host to the first device, to change the at least one setting associated with the first device;

detecting an unexpected termination of an application communicating with the first device; and

sending, in response to the detecting of the unexpected termination, a third request for restoring the at least one setting associated with the first device, from the host to the first device, to restore the at least one setting from the restore point, wherein;

when the driver determines that the first device is capable of understanding the command for creating a restore point and the command for restoring at least one setting associated with the first device from a restore point, the first request includes only one or more communications other than a request for the at least one setting associated with the first device.

15. The machine-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising:

including a digital signature with the first request and the third request, wherein communications between the first device and the host use a well-known protocol and a set of formats describing communication methods and individual or packaged settings.

16. The machine-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising:

sending, by a server to the first device, a firmware upgrade, the sending being performed by using the host as a pass-through proxy such that the firmware upgrade is not stored by the host, wherein

the at least one setting associated with the first device includes at least a portion of firmware associated with the first device before the firmware upgrade.

17. The machine-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising:

sending, by the host, a firmware upgrade to the first device, wherein

the at least one setting associated with the first device includes at least a portion of firmware associated with the first device before the firmware upgrade.

18. The machine-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving, at the host, a request for storage from the first device in response to the sending of the first request;

allocating the storage on the processing device on which the host resides;

sending, to the first device, a confirmation that the storage is allocated;

receiving, at the processing device, the at least one setting from the first device; and

storing the at least one setting in the restore point in the allocated storage.

19. The machine-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving, at the host, a request for the at least one setting stored in the restore point in allocated storage, in response to the sending of the third request; and

sending the at least one setting from the restore point to the first device to restore the at least one setting, in response to the receiving, at the host, of the request for the at least one setting stored in the restore point in the allocated storage.

20. The machine-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising:

when the driver determines that the first device is not capable of understanding the command for creating a restore point and the command for restoring at least one setting associated with the first device from a restore point, performing;

sending at least one communication to the first device to request the device to send the at least one setting;

receiving the at least one setting from the first device; and

storing the received at least one setting in a storage device of the processing device on which the host resides.