Managed system extensibility

• US 8,627,284 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2009
• Issued: 01/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Stritzel, Adam D., Canter, Adriaan W., Traut, Eric P., Sinha, Suyash, Erdogan, Tahsin, Rajpure, Dattatraya B., Sheehan, John M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nam, Hyun
• Application Number:
  US12/488,164
• Publication Number:
  US 20100325085A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,663 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/120
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44563 Sharing

Abstract

One or more extension registrations are received for each of multiple software components installed on a computing device. The one or more extension registrations identify the software components as providers of functionality. A record of the one or more extension registrations for each of the multiple software components is maintained. Requests are received, from other software components installed on the computing device, that identify particular functionality. In response to such requests, the information regarding one or more of the multiple software components that provide the particular functionality is returned to the other software components.

Claims

1. One or more computer storage memories having stored thereon multiple instructions of an operating system that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing device, cause the one or more processors to:

receive, for each of multiple software components installed on the computing device, one or more extension registrations identifying the software component as a provider of functionality;

maintain a record of the one or more extension registrations for each of the multiple software components;

receive requests, from other software components installed on the computing device, that identify particular functionality; and

return to the other software components, in response to the requests and based on the record, information regarding one or more of the multiple software components that provide the particular functionality

receive an indication that one of the multiple software components is to be uninstalled from the computing device;

identify the one or more extension registrations in the record that correspond to the one of the multiple software components; and

delete from the record the one or more extension registrations that correspond to the one of the multiple software components.

2. One or more computer storage memories as recited in claim 1, wherein to receive the one or more extension registrations for a software component is to obtain the one or more extension registrations from a manifest of the software component when the software component is installed on the computing device.

3. One or more computer storage memories as recited in claim 1, wherein to receive the one or more extension registrations for a software component is to receive, via an application programming interface method invoked by the software component, the one or more extension registrations from the software component.

4. One or more computer storage memories as recited in claim 1, wherein to receive the requests from other software components is to receive requests from the other software components via an application programming interface exposed by an extension management module of the operating system.

5. One or more computer storage memories as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more extension registrations comprise multiple extension registrations, and different ones of the multiple extension registrations comprise different types of extensions.

6. One or more computer storage memories as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the one or more extension registrations includes both metadata describing the extension registration and one or more registration parameters for the extension registration.

7. One or more computer storage memories as recited in claim 6, wherein each of the one or more registration parameters comprises a registration parameter name, a registration parameter type, and a registration parameter value.

8. One or more computer storage memories as recited in claim 1, wherein the multiple instructions further cause the one or more processors to convert at least one of the one or more extension registrations into a format used by a legacy store, and store the converted at least one extension registration in the legacy store.

9. One or more computer storage memories as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more extension registrations maintained in the record comprise multiple different types of extensions.

10. One or more computer storage memories as recited in claim 9, wherein the one or more extension registrations include at least one file association, at least one menu item, and at least one shortcut item.

11. One or more computer storage memories as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the one or more extension registrations has a category identifier indicating an extension type of the extension registration, and wherein each of the one or more extension registrations conforms to a category definition defined for the category identifier of the extension registration.

12. One or more computer storage memories as recited in claim 1, wherein the multiple instructions further cause the one or more processors to send, to another module of the computing device, a notification of changes to the record of the one or more extension registrations.

13. A method implemented in an operating system running on a computing device, the method comprising:

obtaining a new extension registration from an extension management module that manages access to an extension registration database, the new extension registration corresponding to an extension provider that communicates with the extension management module;

storing, in a legacy store, extension information based on the new extension registration; and

registering with the extension management module to receive notifications of changes to the extension registration database.

14. A method as recited in claim 13,

wherein the obtaining comprises obtaining a new extension registration in response to a notification of a change to the extension registration database received from extension management module.

15. A method as recited in claim 13, further comprising:

receiving, from the extension management module, a notification of when an extension registration is removed from the extension registration database; and

removing, from the legacy store, extension information corresponding to the extension registration.

16. A method as recited in claim 13, further comprising accessing a legacy extension registration declaration to determine how to convert the new extension registration into a format used by the legacy store.

17. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein the legacy store comprises an operating system registry.

18. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein the extension registration database includes multiple different types of extensions.

19. One or more computer storage memories having stored thereon multiple instructions of an operating system that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing device, cause the one or more processors to:

receive, from a requester executing on the computing device, a request for a path to a dynamic link library, the request specifying both an identifier of the dynamic link library and an identifier of a corresponding software component that includes the dynamic link library;

access, in response to the request, an extension registration database that includes multiple extension registrations including extension registrations for both dynamic link libraries and file associations;

identify an extension registration in the extension registration database that corresponds to the request by identifying the extension registration in the extension registration database that includes both the identifier of the dynamic link library and the identifier of the corresponding software component specified in the request;

obtain, from the extension registration, a location of the dynamic link library; and

return, to the requester, the location of the dynamic link library.