Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Anzhelika Y Nishanova

Aidan T Hughes

David Yalovsky

Paul Clay Barr

Jim Bennett

Peter Oosterhof

Eric H Wong

J Anthony East

Bradley Michael Corob

Jow Keng Yap

David A Yalovsky

This document describes techniques that enable an application to operate as if the application were running on its native computing system when it is actually running on another computing system. The techniques may do so by building a portable database having metadata particular to the application, which can be stored in a portable device along with that application. When that portable device is connected to another computing system, the portable database may be used to supplement or supplant the other computing system's database to enable the application to operate with its particular functionality.

Portable application registry

Technologies are described herein for mitigating user interruption for partially downloaded or streamed virtual applications from a network, such as the Internet. A memory abstraction module can monitor page faults related to memory requests. A page fault may result from a memory request to load code that is not currently available and may trigger the retrieval of code from the network. A monitoring module may identify the quantity or frequency of page faults resulting in code fetches over the network. When the quantity or frequency of fetches over the network exceeds one or more thresholds, an indication of potential delay may be provided to the user. Modified code within an application can trigger download of a collection of code related to specific functionality within the application referred to as wrapped functionality. The user may be provided with a cancel button, or other mechanism, to abort the wrapped download.

Mitigating user interruption for partially downloaded streamed and virtualized applications

The invention may be considered a method and a system for changing license rights to a software product installed on a computer without reinstalling the software product. A first license and a second license to the software product are stored on the computer along with code for the software product. Subsequent to the installation, a change license module receives a command to change the license to the software product. In response to the command, the configuration data is changed to associate the software product with the second license and limit use of the software product to uses consistent with the second set of rights.

Method and system for upgrading licenses to installed software

This document describes techniques that enable an application to operate as if the application were running on its native computing system when it is actually running on another computing system. The techniques may do so by building a portable registry having metadata particular to the application, which can be stored in a portable device along with that application. When that portable device is connected to another computing system, the portable registry may be used to supplement or supplant the other computing system's registry to enable the application to operate with its particular functionality.

In accordance with other aspects, the present invention relates to a system for identifying a license for a first software product of a first type installed on a computer system having at least one other software product of the first type installed on the computer system. The system includes a first license associated with the first software product; at least one second license associated with the at least one other software product installed on the computer; and a license module that compares the first license and the at least one second license and selects one of the first and second licenses based on predetermined criteria. Methods for identifying and displaying a license for a first software product of a first type installed on a computer system are also disclosed.

Method and system for identifying the controlling license for installed software

A portable storage device includes an interface and one or more flash memories. The one or more flash memories store one or more executable files that can be executed by a host computer to which the device is coupled without altering any environment settings on the host computer even though the one or more executable files include instructions to access environment settings. Additionally, the application is bound to the portable storage device during an activation process.

Portable applications

An anti-piracy software licensing system associates a license file with a particular software product, so that the license file cannot be used with a separate product. The license is associated with one and only one product by associating an Installer Identifier (IID) with the license file. At installation, a set-up or installation program can be executed to install the software product. The set-up program will generate an IID based on a characteristic of the media and will check the generated IID against the IID stored in a license file on the same media. A match will verify that the license file on the media (i.e., the media license file) was not tampered with prior to installation and that the license file was intended to be used with the software product on the media. However, if there is not a match, then the installation will be terminated. At run-time the locally stored license file will be checked. If the license file is present, execution of the software product will be enabled. If the license is absent, execution of the software product will be disabled.

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Anzhelika Y Nishanova