Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Pak Kiu Chung

David Abzarian

Reed L Townsend

Stephen Harry Wright

Lawrence William Osterman

Hirofumi Yamamoto

Jacob Rossi

Thomas Russo

Krishnan Menon

Raju Ramanathan

Alan Stephenson

Nidhi Sanghai

A computing environment in which devices interoperate with a plurality of hardware components. Inconsistencies in user experience when operating devices that may use different components are avoided by generating a signature for the components. The signature may be computed as a function of a first key and one or more parameter values obtainable from the component. The signature and parameter values may be stored in the component's memory, and may be obtainable while the component is in operation as part of the computing device. The device may validate the component by performing at least one function based on the signature, the one or more parameter values obtainable from the component, and a second key, which may or may not be identical to the first key. The device may change its interaction with the component, depending on whether the component was successfully validated.

Systems for validating hardware devices

In one embodiment, a unified pointer messagemay describe in a single type of pointer message a coordinate input from a user via multiple types of pointer devices. An input device interfacemay receive a coordinate inputfrom an input device. A processormay execute an application programming interface layerthat creates a unified pointer messagefor the coordinate input. The processormay send the unified pointer messageto an application. The processormay process a device specific data setunhandled by the application.

Device specific data in a unified pointer message

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Pak Kiu Chung