Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Robert C Combs

Bryan T Starbuck

Gail Giacobbe

Alexander Vaschillo

John Heinrich Lueders

Stephen Thomas Wells

Remi Alain Lemarchand

Sridhar Sundararaman

Raghavendra Rachamadugu

Christopher Michael Simison

Hubert Louis Marie Van Hoof

Harish Srinivasan

Alireza Dabagh

Randy Knight Winjum

Sandeep Singhal

Pankaj Garg

Narasimhan Agrahara Venkataramaiah

Narasimha Rao S S Nagampalli

Sambhrama Madhusudhan Mundkur

Alexander Malysh

Luis M Hernandez

Stephen T Wells

Alexander E Vaschillo

Gail Borod Giacobbe

A supervisory control system provides power management in an electronic device by providing timeout periods for a hardware component to lower levels of the operating system such as a power management arbitrator and/or a hardware interface controller. The power management arbitrator and/or hardware interface controller transition at least a portion of a hardware component to a lower-power state based on monitored activity information of the hardware component. The supervisory control system may further provide wakeup periods to the power management arbitrator and/or a hardware interface controller to determine whether the hardware component should be transitioned to a higher-power state at the end of the wakeup period if the hardware component satisfies a transition condition.

Supervisory control of power management

A system for aggregated electronic device power management includes an aggregated power management arbitrator configured to collect activity information from one or more electronic devices regarding the use of a type of hardware component on the electronic devices. The aggregated power management arbitrator selects a timeout period for transmitting to one of the one or more electronic devices to define a minimum amount of time before the hardware component is transitioned to a lower-power state. The aggregated power management arbitrator may determine usage patterns for one of the electronic devices based on the collected activity information and the applications executing on the electronic device. A timeout period may be adjusted based on the determined usage pattern to improve efficiency of the power management of the electronic device.

Aggregated electronic device power management

Time-related properties may be modeled independent of a base object. Rather than storing time properties with the object, they may be stored independently. A given object may be stored once, even if it has a recurrent time property. The description of a 'meeting,' for example, may be stored once. Each occurrence of that object over time may be stored in a 'timeslot' (object &#x3c;foo&#x3e; occurs at time 't' on day 'd'). If it is a recurring property, recurrence information may be stored independently. &#x201c;Exception&#x201d; information may be stored independently as well.

Modeling recurring events in a data store

A computing device that has a network interface that performs a subset of possible networking functions while the computing device is in a sleep mode. The subset of functions may be simply implemented on the network interface, yet to substantially reduce the frequency with which the computing device has to wake up to perform networking functions. The subset of functions may be selected to maintain a network presence of the computing device while the device is in sleep mode, and may include responding to requests for MAC information, sending keep-alive messages or exchanging security information that, in accordance with network protocols, has a limited lifetime that would otherwise expire while the computing device is in sleep mode.

Network presence offloads to network interface

An extensible virtual switch allows virtual machines to communicate with one another and optionally with other physical devices via a network. The extensible virtual switch includes an extensibility protocol binding, allowing different extensions to be added to the extensible virtual switch. The extensible virtual switch also includes a miniport driver on which the extensions are loaded, tying the lifetimes of the extensions to the lifetime of the extensible virtual switch.

Virtual switch extensibility

The principles of the present invention extend to efficiently and reliably providing message related data. Generally, data fields of electronic messages and attachments are created in accordance with an electronic message schema hierarchy. An electronic message can include links to folder items that represent message folders. An electronic message can also include links to contact items that represent message participants. Message applications can register for folder spaces such that each message application is aware of folders that are primarily controlled by other message applications. A link to a contact item can be selected to access current contact related data for a message participant, even when the contact related data has changed since an electronic message containing the link was received.

Efficiently and reliably providing message related data

The present invention extends to methods, systems, computer program products, and data structures for efficiently storing and accessing electronic messages. Generally, electronic messages are created and transformed in accordance with an electronic message schema hierarchy. Electronic messages can be created according to a general message schema that defines a format for data fields that are common to all types of electronic messages (e.g. electronic mail, instant message, fax message). Electronic messages can also be extended according to message extension schemas that define formats for adding protocol specific and/or or application specific data fields to an electronic message. Data fields added in accordance with message extension schemas can differ between electronic messages types. Having some commonly defined fields and other differently defined fields promotes efficient storage and access of electronic messages, while also facilitating message compatibility with existing message protocols and message applications.

Schema hierarchy for electronic messages

The present invention extends to methods, systems, computer program products, and data structures for decoupling an attachment from an electronic message that included the attachment. Generally, data fields of electronic messages and attachments are created in accordance with an electronic message schema hierarchy. Attachments are configured to have a data field indicating if the attachment is to persist when a corresponding electronic message is deleted. When an attachment persists, a user may be able to locate and use the attachment after a corresponding electronic message has been deleted (even if the attachment has not been expressly saved). Attachments are configured to include attachment metadata indicating properties of an electronic message that included the attachment. Accordingly, a user can access information (e.g., sender, subject, date, etc) associated with an electronic message (e.g., that included the attachment) even after the electronic message has been deleted.

Decoupling an attachment from an electronic message that included the attachment

The present invention extends to methods, systems, computer program products, and data structures for presenting different types of electronic messages at a common interface. Electronic message items are stored in an item database along with other types of items, such as, for example, contact items, folder items, document items, etc. Electronic message items have some common defined data fields and possibly other differently defined data fields that represent protocol and/or application specific properties. Computer systems can query the item database for message related data (e.g., from commonly defined data fields) and display links to message related data at a common messaging interface. Links to different types of electronic messages (as represented by protocol and/or application specific properties) may be displayed simultaneously at the common messaging interface.

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Robert C Combs