Displaying applications of a virtual mobile device in a user interface of a mobile device

• US 9,465,633 B2
• Filed: 08/03/2012
• Issued: 10/11/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Newell, Craig, Deasy, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Puente, Emerson
• Assistant Examiner(s): DO, STEVEN M
• Application Number:
  US13/566,409
• Publication Number:
  US 20130145366A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,530 Days
• Field of Search: 718/1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• 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 9/441 Multiboot arrangements, i.e. selecting an operating system to be loaded
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/452 Remote windowing, e.g. X-Window System, desktop virtualisation protocols for virtual reality H04L67/131
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45545 Guest-host, i.e. hypervisor is an application program itself, e.g. VirtualBox

Abstract

One or more embodiments of the invention facilitate displaying application icons of a guest environment in a host environment of a mobile device, wherein the guest environment is running in a virtual machine supported by a hypervisor running within the host environment. One method comprises forwarding, by a hypervisor-aware service running in the virtual machine to the hypervisor, a list of applications installed in a guest operating system (OS) of the virtual machine. For each of the installed applications, the hypervisor provides metadata to a host OS running in the host environment, wherein the metadata comprises an application icon and an instruction to launch a proxy application installed in the host environment. Upon a launch of the proxy application when a user selects the application icon, the proxy application requests the hypervisor to communicate with the hypervisor-aware service to launch the installed application in the guest environment.

Claims

1. A method for displaying application icons of a guest environment in a host environment of a mobile device, wherein the guest environment is running in a virtual machine supported by a hypervisor running within the host environment of the mobile device, the method comprising:

forwarding, by a hypervisor-aware service running in the virtual machine to the hypervisor, a list of applications installed in a guest operating system (OS) of the virtual machine;

for each of the installed applications, providing, by the hypervisor, metadata to a host OS running in the host environment, wherein the metadata comprises an application icon for the installed application and an instruction to launch a proxy application installed in the host environment upon a selection by a user of the application icon and wherein the host OS displays the application icon on a user interface (UI) of the mobile device upon receipt of the metadata;

upon a launch of the proxy application by the host OS when a user selects the application icon on the UI of the mobile device, requesting, by the proxy application, the hypervisor to communicate with the hypervisor-aware service running in the virtual machine to launch the installed application in the guest environment;

requesting, by the hypervisor-aware service, a list of information providers from the hypervisor, the information providers originating from the host OS; and

generating registration information for the list of information providers, wherein the hypervisor-aware service makes at least one of the information providers available for access, based on the registration information, by the applications installed on the guest OS.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

registering, by the hypervisor-aware service, with the guest OS to receive notifications of installations of new applications in the guest environment;

receiving, by the hypervisor-aware service, a notification from the guest OS of an installation of a new application; and

forwarding metadata relating to the new application to the hypervisor to enable the host OS to display a corresponding icon for the new application on the UI of the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the hypervisor-aware service obtains the list of installed applications from a package manager component of the guest OS, the list of installed applications includes at least a portion of the metadata for each of the installed applications, and the hypervisor modifies the metadata to include the instruction to launch the proxy application before performing the providing step.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata for each of the installed applications further comprises an identifier of the installed application that is passed by the proxy application to the hypervisor in order to identify the installed application within the guest environment to the hypervisor-aware service for launching.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the application icon for each of the installed applications in the guest OS is displayed on the UI of the mobile device by the host OS with an additional UI element to distinguish the installed application from applications installed in the host environment.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of requiring the user to submit a password related to the guest environment prior to enabling the host OS to display the list of applications installed in the guest OS on the UI of the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

upon receiving a request by the user to view a task manager that displays active applications running on the mobile device, requesting, by the host OS, the hypervisor to communicate with the hypervisor-aware service running in the guest environment in order to obtain a list of active applications running in the guest OS;

receiving the list of active applications running m the guest OS from the hypervisor via the hypervisor-aware service running in the guest environment; and

displaying on the UI of the mobile device the list of active applications running in the guest OS and a list of active applications running in the host OS.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed on a processor in a mobile device, causes the processor to display application icons of a guest environment in a host environment of the mobile device, wherein the guest environment is running in a virtual machine supported by a hypervisor running within the host environment of the mobile device, by performing the steps of:

forwarding, by a hypervisor-aware service running in the virtual machine to the hypervisor, a list of applications installed in a guest operating system (OS) of the virtual machine;

for each of the installed applications, providing, by the hypervisor, metadata to a host OS running in the host environment, wherein the metadata comprises an application icon for the installed application and an instruction to launch a proxy application installed in the host environment upon a selection by a user of the application icon and wherein the host OS displays the application icon on a user interface (UI) of the mobile device upon receipt of the metadata;

upon a launch of the proxy application by the host OS when a user selects the application icon on the UI of the mobile device, requesting, by the proxy application, the hypervisor to communicate with the hypervisor-aware service running in the virtual machine to launch the installed application in the guest environment;

requesting, by the hypervisor-aware service, a list of information providers from the hypervisor, the information providers originating from the host OS; and

generating registration information for the list of information providers, wherein the hypervisor-aware service makes at least one of the information providers available for access, based on the registration information, by the applications installed on the guest OS.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions further comprise the steps of:

registering, by the hypervisor-aware service, with the guest OS to receive notifications of installations of new applications in the guest environment;

receiving, by the hypervisor-aware service, a notification from the guest OS of an installation of a new application; and

forwarding metadata relating to the new application to the hypervisor to enable the host OS to display a corresponding icon for the new application on the UI of the mobile device.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the hypervisor-aware service obtains the list of installed applications from a package manager component of the guest OS, the list of installed applications includes at least a portion of the metadata for each of the installed applications, and the hypervisor modifies the metadata to include the instruction to launch the proxy application before performing the providing step.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the metadata for each of the installed applications further comprises an identifier of the installed application that is passed by the proxy application to the hypervisor in order to identify the installed application within the guest environment to the hypervisor-aware service for launching.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the application icon for each of the installed applications in the guest OS is displayed on the UI of the mobile device by the host OS with an additional UI element to distinguish the installed application from applications installed in the host environment.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions further comprise the step of requiring the user to submit a password related to the guest environment prior to enabling the host OS to display the list of applications installed in the guest OS on the UI of the mobile device.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions further comprise the steps of:

upon receiving a request by the user to view a task manager that displays active applications running on the mobile device, requesting, by the host OS, the hypervisor to communicate with the hypervisor-aware service running in the guest environment in order to obtain a list of active applications running in the guest OS;

receiving the list of active applications running the guest OS from the hypervisor via the hypervisor-aware service running in the guest environment; and

displaying on the UI of the mobile device the list of active applications running in the guest OS and a list of active applications running in the host OS.

15. A mobile device comprising a processor configured to display application icons of a guest environment in a host environment of the mobile device, wherein the guest environment is running in a virtual machine supported by a hypervisor running within the host environment of the mobile device, by performing the steps of:

forwarding, by a hypervisor-aware service running in the virtual machine to the hypervisor, a list of applications installed in a guest operating system (OS) of the virtual machine;

for each of the installed applications, providing, by the hypervisor, metadata to a host OS running in the host environment, wherein the metadata comprises an application icon for the installed application and an instruction to launch a proxy application installed in the host environment upon a selection by a user of the application icon and wherein the host OS displays the application icon on a user interface (UI) of the mobile device upon receipt of the metadata;

upon a launch of the proxy application by the host OS when a user selects the application icon on the UI of the mobile device, requesting, by the proxy application, the hypervisor to communicate with the hypervisor-aware service running in the virtual machine to launch the installed application in the guest environment;

requesting, by the hypervisor-aware service, a list of information providers from the hypervisor, the information providers originating from the host OS; and

generating registration information for the list of information providers, wherein the hypervisor-aware service makes at least one of the information providers available for access, based on the registration information, by the applications installed on the guest OS.

16. The mobile device of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to perform the steps of:

registering, by the hypervisor-aware service, with the guest OS to receive notifications of installations of new applications in the guest environment;

receiving, by the hypervisor-aware service, a notification from the guest OS of an installation of a new application; and

forwarding metadata relating to the new application to the hypervisor to enable the host OS to display a corresponding icon for the new application on the UI of the mobile device.

17. The mobile device of claim 15, wherein the hypervisor-aware service obtains the list of installed applications from a package manager component of the guest OS, the list of installed applications includes at least a portion of the metadata for each of the installed applications, and the hypervisor modifies the metadata to include the instruction to launch the proxy application before performing the providing step.

18. The mobile device of claim 15, wherein the metadata for each of the installed applications further comprises an identifier of the installed application that is passed by the proxy application to the hypervisor in order to identify the installed application within the guest environment to the hypervisor-aware service for launching.

19. The mobile device of claim 15, wherein the application icon for each of the installed applications in the guest OS is displayed on the UI of the mobile device by the host OS with an additional UI element to distinguish the installed application from applications installed in the host environment.

20. The mobile device of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to perform the step of requiring the user to submit a password related to the guest environment prior to enabling the host OS to display the list of applications installed in the guest OS on the UI of the mobile device.