Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Fernanda Mendes Richnak

Matthew Jay Kotler

Jonathan Jay Cadiz

Jin Ma

William Ritter Avery

Erin Woo

Sapan Sarvaiya

Weina Xie

Garett Yoshiharu Sakamoto

Jonathan David Butler

Madhura Patil

Corina Arama

Lingnan Becker

Biswa Ranjan Behera

Systems and method are directed to launching an application from a rail located within a user interface of a personal information manager application. More specifically, a display of a first user interface of a first application may be rendered at a display device, where the first user interface includes a rail populated with a plurality of icons representing a plurality of applications. At least one of the plurality of icons may be selected and a second application may be determined based on the selected icon. Based upon the selection of the icon, a display of a second user interface may be rendered within a portion of the first user interface.

Left rail corresponding icon for launching apps within the context of a personal information manager

Systems and methods for conducting a sign-up process according to configuration data are presented. As indicated, the sign-up process is driven by configuration data, typically though not exclusively contained in an accessible configuration file, to conduct a sign-up process. According to the configuration data, the sign-up process utilizing the base set of executable code may conduct a sign-up process that includes presentation of data according to thematic elements, control the ordering of data aggregation and presentation, provide conditional branching among configuration items/instructions based on a variety of factors including user-provided input, validation of sign-up information including third-party validation of sign-up information, nesting sign-up processes, access to remotely located information, and external execution of functionality from or by external third-party services.

Configuration-driven sign-up

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Fernanda Mendes Richnak