Logical migration of applications and data

• US 8,918,779 B2
• Filed: 08/27/2009
• Issued: 12/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Nichols, David A., Virk, Navjot, McKelvie, Samuel J., Dickson, Mathew J.
• Primary Examiner(s): RHU, KRIS M
• Application Number:
  US12/548,619
• Publication Number:
  US 20110055823A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,944 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4451 User profiles; Roaming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

Implementations are described of a computing device that migrates data and software applications from a first computing device to a second computing device, in order to preserve data and other application-related customizations.

Claims

1. A server comprising:

a software library component configured to store a first set of software applications, wherein the first set of software applications includes software applications supplied by software applications manufacturers, and software applications that were previously stored on the software library component;

a data storage component configured to extract and store data from a first computing device in response to detecting a presence of updates in the first set of software applications, wherein the data include files, documents, settings, customizations and versions of software applications installed on the first computing device; and

a system configurator component configured to;

determine a second set of software applications that includes the versions of the software applications installed on the first computing device from the data storage component,

determine an installation version for a third set of software applications for a second computing device, wherein the installation version is compatible with the third set of software applications and is further compatible with an operating system of the second computing device, and the third set of software applications comprises one or more software applications of the first set of software applications that have been integrated with the data stored in the data storage component prior to installing the third set of software applications to the second computing device, and

install at least a portion of the data and the third set of software applications to the second computing device, wherein the installing of the at least portion of the data includes setting selections and customization selections of the second computing device and the third set of software applications includes a version newer than the second set of software applications.

2. The server of claim 1, wherein the server comprises a cloud server that acts as a proxy to the software applications manufacturers.

3. The server of claim 1, wherein the server includes one or more independent online server computer systems or computing devices.

4. The server of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to provide a selection of one or more software applications with corresponding setting selections and customization selections.

5. The server of claim 1, wherein the data storage component is further configured to extract and store the data in a periodic basis.

6. The server of claim 1, wherein the system configurator component determines the installation version based further on consideration of hardware and software setup as desired by a user to be installed on the second computing device.

7. The server of claim 1, wherein the system configurator component is further configured to track changes in the first set of software applications and adopt the changes when configuring the installation version for installing the third set of software applications.

8. The server of claim 1, wherein the system configurator component is further configured to integrate updates in the first set of software applications with the stored data in the data storage component to provide the third set of software applications.

9. A method comprising:

under control of one or more computing devices configured with executable instructions;

storing a first set of software applications on a software library component;

storing data from a first computing device to a data storage component in response to detecting a presence of updates in the first set of software applications, wherein the data includes files, documents, settings, customizations and versions of software applications installed on the first computing device;

determining a second set of software applications, wherein the second set of software applications includes the versions of the software applications stored on the data storage component;

determining an installation version for a third set of software applications for a second computing device; and

installing the data and the third set of software applications onto the second computing device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein storing the first set of software applications provides a software library that includes one or more software applications.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving a request to migrate the software applications and the data of the first computing device, the request including migrating one or more of:

the settings, the customizations, the files and the documents.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein storing the data further includes periodic extraction of data updates from the first computing device.

13. The method of claim 9 further comprising integrating the updates in the first set of software applications with the stored data on the data storage component.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the installation version is compatible to the first set of software applications stored in the software library component or the first set of software applications that has adopted the data stored in the data storage component.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein determining the installation version for the third set of software applications comprises determining the installation version based at least in part on one or more of the first set of software applications and the second set of software applications.

16. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

memory;

a software library component stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that is configured to store a first set of software applications;

a data storage component stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that is configured to store data from a first computing device in response to detecting a presence of updates in the first set of software applications, wherein the data includes one or more of;

files, documents, settings, customizations and versions of software applications installed on the first computing device; and

a system configurator component stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that is configured to;

determine a second set of software applications, wherein the second set of software applications includes the versions of the software applications stored on the data storage component;

determine an installation version for a third set of software applications for a second computing device; and

install the data and the third set of software applications onto the second computing device.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the system configurator component determines the installation version based at least in part on consideration of hardware and software setup as desired by a user of the second computing device to be installed on the second computing device.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the system configurator component determines the installation version based at least in part on one or more of the first set of software applications and the second set of software applications.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the system configurator component is further configured to track changes in the first set of software applications and adopt the changes when configuring the installation version for installing the third set of software applications.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the system configurator component is further configured to receive a request to migrate the applications and the data of the first computing device, the request including migrating previous settings, customizations, files, documents, and the second set of software applications stored on the data storage component to the second computing device.