System and method for monitoring application response and providing visual treatment

• US 20050257168A1
• Filed: 05/17/2004
• Published: 11/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Cummins, Charles, VedBrat, Kanwal, Fink, Reiner, Wong, Lyon K.F.
• Granted Patent: US 7,386,807 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/809
• 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

Abstract

A system and method are provided for determining the status of an application and altering the corresponding application window if necessary in order to convey information to the user and improve the user experience. The system and method of the invention allow visual treatment to be applied to a last active state of an application. The system and method further detect hidden dialogs that are shown in response to an application closing or exit request. The system and method additionally trap applications that respond to messages but ignore close commands and detect applications that do not provide visual feedback in response to user requests to close. Through these functions, a user is able to more readily distinguish between a non-responsive application and an improperly functioning application window.

Claims

1. A method for ensuring from a computer operating system that a responsive application is providing sufficient visual feedback to a user, the method comprising:

determining whether the application is showing a dialog to the user;

determining whether any shown dialog is visible to the user; and

repositioning any dialog not visible to the user so that the repositioned dialog becomes visible to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, upon determining that no dialog is shown and waiting for a predetermined time period for the application to close, providing feedback to inform the user that the application is non-responsive and prompting the user to terminate the application.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that a shown dialog is buried and moving the dialog to a front position visible to the user.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising altering the application window appearance after revealing the hidden dialog.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein altering the application window appearance comprises one of removing a frosting effect and removing a ghosting effect from the application window.

6. A computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

7. A method for providing visual feedback to a user from a computer operating system to indicate application status, the method comprising:

determining a non-responsive application state by finding one of a ghosted application window and lack of an application dialog,

capturing an application window state; and

applying a visual treatment to each application window for the application using the captured application window state.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising applying a visual treatment by frosting each application window.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising locating an application dialog and determining that an application is responsive.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining that the dialog is hidden from the user.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising re-positioning the hidden dialog to make it visible to the user.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising altering the application window appearance after revealing the hidden dialog.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein altering the application window appearance comprises one of removing a frosting effect and removing a ghosting effect from the application window.

14. A computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 7.

15. A method for monitoring application status and responding with visual feedback from an operating system, the method comprising:

determining if an application window is ghosted;

sending a message to an application if the application window is not ghosted;

waiting for a response from the application for a pre-set time period;

determining whether the application is showing a dialog if the application provides a response within the pre-set time period; and

applying a visual treatment to the application window if the application window is ghosted and applying a visual treatment if the application is not showing a dialog, wherein applying a visual treatment comprises capturing a last active window state and frosting the last active window state for display.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising locating an application dialog and determining that an application is responsive.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining that the dialog is hidden from the user.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising re-positioning the hidden dialog to make it visible to the user.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising altering the application window appearance after revealing the hidden dialog.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein altering the application window appearance comprises one of removing a frosting effect and removing a ghosting effect from the application window.

21. A computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 15.

22. A system for monitoring application status and responding with visual feedback from an operating system, the system comprising:

an application state monitoring component for determining whether an application is responsive;

a window state capture component for capturing a state of a non-responsive application; and

window appearance control components for altering an appearance of a non-responsive application window using the captured state.

23. The system of claim 22, further comprising a windows appearance monitoring component for determining an appearance of an application window.

24. The system of claim 22, further comprising a dialog manipulation component for moving a hidden dialog for a responsive application.

25. A system for monitoring application status and responding with visual feedback from an operating system, the system comprising:

an application state monitoring component for determining whether an application is responsive and whether an application is showing a dialog; and

a dialog manipulation component for re-positioning the dialog for a responsive application that provides an invisible dialog.

window appearance control components for altering an appearance of a non-responsive application window.

26. The system of claim 25, further comprising a window state capture component for capturing an application window state for a non-responsive application.

27. The system of claim 25, further comprising a windows appearance monitoring component for detecting at least one of a ghosted window and a frosted window.