Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Nicholas Stephen Judge

James A Schwartz, Jr

Arun Upadhyaya Kishan

Andrew J Ritz

Mehmet Iyigun

Yevgeniy Bak

Hari R Pulapaka

Emily Nicole Wilson

Scott Daniel Anderson

David John Linsley

Patrick L Stemen

Kinshumann Kinshumann

Kirsten Valery Stark

Andrew D Rogers

Niraj Majmudar

Shuvabrata Ganguly

Brandon S Baker

Tristan Anthony Brown

Allen Marshall

Yimin Deng

Haiyong Wang

Dean L DeWhitt

Jacob Kappeler Oshins

Michael Richard Fortin

Stephane Plante

Tony Dwayne Pierce

Jee Fung Pang

Jonathan Vines Smith

Timothy W Liaw

Libo Tao

In embodiments of an idle time service, it can be determined that processing on a device is in an idle state. An execution duration of applications that are scheduled to be executed by a processor of the device can then be extended to reduce power consumption by the device. In other embodiments, it can be determined that an application configured to execute on a device is a background application. The execution duration of the background application can then be extended to reduce power consumption by the device.

Idle time service

Principles for enabling power management techniques for virtual machines. In a virtual machine environment, a physical computer system may maintain management facilities to direct and control one or more virtual machines executing thereon. In some techniques described herein, the management facilities may be adapted to place a virtual processor in an idle state in response to commands from a guest operating system. One or more signaling mechanisms may be supported such that the guest operating system will command the management facilities to place virtual processors in the idle state.

Power saving operating system for virtual environment

Anti-malware process protection techniques are described. In one or more implementations, an anti-malware process is launched. The anti-malware process is verified based at least in part on an anti-malware driver that contains certificate pairs which contain an identity that is signed with the trusted certificate from a verified source. After the anti-malware process is verified, the anti-malware process may be assigned a protection level, and an administrative user may be prevented from altering the anti-malware process.

Protecting anti-malware processes

Anti-malware process protection techniques are described. In one or more implementations, an anti-malware process is launched. The anti-malware process is verified based at least in part on an anti-malware driver that contains certificates which contain an identity that is signed with the trusted certificate from a verified source. After the anti-malware process is verified, the anti-malware process may be assigned a protection level, and an administrative user may be prevented from altering the anti-malware process.

Power-saving operating system for virtual environment

Anti-malware process protection techniques are described. In one or more implementations, an anti-malware driver is signed using a hash that identifies a manufacturer of the anti-malware driver. The anti-malware driver is then provided to a computing device. The anti-malware driver may be assigned a protection level based on an agreement between the anti-malware manufacturer and an operating system manufacturer, and this protection level effects the operation of the anti-malware program on the computing device.

A method of operating a computing device to allow events to be conditionally executed based on a power state of the device at the time of execution of the events. Conditional execution may be implemented using multiple timers, each associated with a power state. A timer such as an 'AC timer' or a 'DC timer' associated with a respective power state may be used to wake up the device when, upon expiration, or time-out, of the timer, a current power state of the device and the power state associated with the timer match. An Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI) may be employed to abstract implementation of the timers from underlying hardware of the device. The operating system and software applications may request establishing wake-up behavior of the device as commands to program conditional events, which may then be translated into commands to embedded controller to set the timers.

Power state dependent wake-up alarm

Resume of a computing device from hibernation may be performed in multiple phases. Each phase may partially restore a state of the computing device to an operational state and may establish an environment in which another phase of the resume is performed. The hibernation information may be partitioned to store separately data to be used at each resume phase. The information may be stored in a compressed form. In a first phase, a boot-level resume loader may restore a portion of the operating system based on a portion of the hibernation information. The restored portion may be used in a second phase to retrieve hibernation information from another portion through the operating system (OS). Multiple processors supported by the OS may read and decompress the hibernation information that is then moved back to operational memory. The operating system may support asynchronous disk input/output or other functions that accelerate the resume process.

Multi-phase resume from hibernate

Techniques and apparatuses for providing power-aware thread scheduling and dynamic use of processors are disclosed. In some aspects, a multi-core system is monitored to determine core activity. The core activity may be compared to a power policy that balances a power savings plan with a performance plan. One or more of the cores may be parked in response to the comparison to reduce power consumption by the multi-core system. In additional aspects, the power-aware scheduling may be performed during a predetermined interval to dynamically park or unpark cores. Further aspects include adjusting the power state of unparked cores in response to the comparison of the core activity and power policy.

Power-aware thread scheduling and dynamic use of processors

Transitioning to a suspend to RAM sleeping state while also protecting against power losses while sleeping is provided. System state context data is saved to non-volatile storage and components in the computer system prepare to transition to a suspend to disc sleeping. A transition to the suspend to RAM sleeping state is then effected. Alternatively, after the system context is saved and the components are prepared to transition, the system may wake to a working state. The components may be directed to prepare for transitioning to a suspend to RAM sleeping state, and then the BIOS may be directed to execute the transition. In either embodiment, if power to the system is lost while the system is in the suspend to RAM system state, then the system may resume to a working state by reading the context file stored to non-volatile storage.

Systems and methods for providing power-loss protection to sleeping computers systems

Programmatically diagnosing the root cause of a problem in a computing system. Events are monitored within an operating system, and at least a subset of the events are logged to a log file. In response to the detection of error condition(s), a diagnostics module is invoked. The diagnostics module queries the log file to correlate events relevant to diagnosis of the problem, and identifies the root cause by evaluating the results of the query. Once the root cause of the problem is diagnosed, a resolution module corresponding to that root cause may be invoked to programmatically resolve the problem. The invocation of the diagnostic and resolution modules may be subject to policy rules. Furthermore, the logging, diagnostics and resolution modules may be automatically updated as needed.

Programmatic computer problem diagnosis and resolution and automated reporting and updating of the same

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Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Nicholas Stephen Judge