Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Jerome Stephen Healy

Jan-Kristian Markiewicz

Connor Colin Marwan Al-joundi

Tyler Duckworth

Emily Lynn Bender

Sophia Sixue Chen

Stephanie Ling Diao

Tiffany Jamie Chen

Eric Norman Badger

The techniques disclosed herein implement a centralized lighting module configured to control a diverse set of lighting-enabled peripheral devices. The set of lighting-enabled peripheral devices is diverse with respect to a type and a manufacturer. The lighting module is referred to as a centralized lighting module because the lighting module is part of an operating system of a computing device. Consequently, a user of the computing device no longer has to download and learn to use multiple different lighting applications if the user wants to create a diverse lighting ecosystem in which lighting-enabled peripheral devices from different manufacturers are connected to the computing device. Similarly, a developer of a computing application no longer has to engage and interact with multiple application programming interfaces (APIs) and software development kits (SDKs) if the developer wants users of their computing application to be able to create a diverse lighting ecosystem.

Centralized control of lighting-enabled peripheral devices

Technologies are disclosed for temporarily hiding user interface ('UI') elements, such as application windows or tabs. A request can be received to hide a UI element for a specified period of time. When such a request is received, the UI element is hidden and an identifier corresponding to the UI element is moved from a first area of a taskbar to a second area of the taskbar. The application presenting the UI element can be configured for reduced consumption of computing resources while the UI element is hidden. Additionally, notifications associated with the UI element can be disabled while the UI element is hidden. When the specified period of time to hide the UI element has elapsed, the UI element is once again displayed. Additionally, the identifier corresponding to the UI element is moved from the second area of the taskbar back to the first area of the taskbar.

Temporarily hiding user interface elements

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Jerome Stephen Healy