Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Kanwal Vedbrat

Mark R Ligameri

Charles W Stabb

Hillel Noah Cooperman

Charles Cummins

David Andrew Matthews

Jeffrey West Pettiross

Ales Holecek

Donald James Lindsay

Jenny T Lam

Paul Alexander Gusmorino, Iii

Timothy P McKee

J Craig Hally

Sterling M Reasor

Richard M Banks

Giampiero M Sierra

Eric R Flo

Jingyang Xu

Timothy Daniel Noonan

Greg S Melander

Cornelis K Van Dok

Robert Kenneth Stein, Iii

Judson Craig Hally

Colin Ray Anthony

Tjeerd Hoek

Jan Thomas Miksovsky

Ahmet Gurcan

Marcus Harvey

Herman Widjaja

Hristo H Ivanov

Worachai Chaoweeraprasit

Jianye Lu

Adam Knauff

Gregory Scott Matthews Melander

Robert A Brown

Harvinder Singh

Miles M Cohen

A method referred to as visual window browsing allows a user to browse through windows on their desktop. Aspects of the invention include responsive to a command, moving open windows to form a visual stack with the topmost window in the stack being in focus. Responsive to a browse the windows in the visual stack can be browsed, where the topmost window moves to the bottom of the visual stack and the other windows move higher in the stack, with the second highest window becoming the topmost window and being in focus. Successive browse commands causes this behavior to repeat allowing a user to cycle through each of the open windows.

System and method for visually browsing of open windows

A graphical user interface is provided that has two distinct sections. A first area has an array of menu items. When a menu item is hovered over by a pointer, an icon such as a contextually-related animated icon is displayed on a second area and changes its appearance in such a way as to indicate to the user the location of the pointer and/or the consequence of selecting that menu item.

User interface menu with hovering icons

Systems and methods for manipulating toolbar dimensions are provided. Each toolbar includes a number of toolbar components each having a first and second representation and the toolbar is associated with a reference value. As the toolbar dimensions are adjusted, if the reference value for the toolbar is between a first and second size thresholds, the toolbar is adjusted and displayed relative to the reference value while maintaining the relative position of the toolbar components displaying a first representation to each other. Alternatively, if the reference value for the toolbar is not between the first and second size thresholds, the toolbar is adjusted and displayed relative to the reference value while maintaining the relative position of the toolbar components displaying a second representation to each other.

Manipulating toolbar component dimensions

In an implementation of user interface transition, a user interface logon page is displayed with selectable logon controls that each have a corresponding user-identifiable indicator. A transition from the user interface logon page to a user interface desktop page is initiated in response to a selectable logon control being selected. The transition displays the user-identifiable indicator corresponding to the selectable logon control uninterrupted throughout the transition, and the user-identifiable indicator corresponding to the selectable logon control is displayed on the user interface desktop page.

User interface transition

In an implementation of user interface start page, the start page includes a user-identifiable indicator associated with a user of a computing system to indicate that the user is logged-on to the computing system. The user interface start page also includes user-selectable controls from one or more regions of a user interface desktop page which is displayed after a transition from the user interface start page to the user interface desktop page. Each of the user-selectable controls on the user interface start page initiate a display of information associated with the user when selected.

User interface start page

A method for displaying a plurality of windows on a display screen is described. The method includes steps of associating a first window with a second window, where the second window is independent of the first window, arranging the first window and the second window on a display screen, where the first window and the second window are configured to fit within a predetermined region of the display screen, and notifying an application program corresponding to the first window that the second window is associated with the first window. An indicator may appear on the display as a target region when a user desires to associate the first and the second windows. Subsequent operations performed on the first window are performed automatically on the second window. For example, when a user is comparing two documents, she can scroll down one document and have the second document automatically scroll as well.

Multiple window behavior system

A system and method for manipulating toolbar dimensions are provided. Each toolbar includes a number of toolbar components having a textual representation and a graphic representation. As the toolbar dimensions are adjusted, a first size threshold defines when to adjust the graphic representation while maintaining the text representation, a second size threshold defines when to omit the textual representation and adjust the graphic representation and a third size threshold determines when to omit the graphic representation and fix the textual representation.

System and method for manipulating toolbar component dimensions

Portion of a display screen

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Kanwal Vedbrat