Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Microsoft Corporation

Robert Disano

Christian Klein

Jan-Kristian Markiewicz

Bret P Anderson

Orry Wijanarko Soegiono

Gerrit H Hofmeester

Paul J Kwiatkowski

Ross Nathaniel Luengen

Rebecca J Deutsch

Holger Kuehnle

Albert Peter Yih

Nicholas Randall Waggoner

Theresa B Pittappilly

William D Carr

Eric Alexander Papamarcos

Scott David Schenone

Jason Craig Nelson

Lee Dicks Clark

Katherine Blair Huffman

Paula Julia Chuchro

Leo Tian Yue

Clinton Edward Rutkas

Stacy Carson

Peter Josef Kreiseder

Jerome Jean-Louis Vasseur

Selena Feng

Howard Hughes

Benjamin B Stolovitz

Diego D Baca Del Rosario

Peter Hammerquist

Gregg Robert Wygonik

Alex G Snitkovskiy

Connor Lawrence Weins

Hanna Mclaughlin

Michael D McCormack

Anna Marion Pfoertsch

Yash Misra

Hadley Meryl Griffin

Alexandre Pereira

Sammy Chiu

Michael David Mccormack

Robert David Steen

Jessica Leigh Douma

Benjamin J Schoepke

Charles Edward Taylor, Jr

Emilia Marie Nobrega

Ashley Nicole Ferguson

Albert P Yih

Stacy D Carson

Systems and methods for reconfiguring application windows in a display. An example method includes displaying a first application window and a second application window; receiving a drag input for moving the first application window; based on the drag input entering an invocation region, displaying a layout menu with a plurality of display layouts, each of the display layouts including one or more snap zones; receiving a hover of the first application window over a particular snap zone of a particular display layout of the plurality of display layouts; based on the hover of the first application window over the particular snap zone, displaying a zone-indicator pane corresponding to the particular snap zone; receiving a drop input of the first application window over the particular snap zone; and in response to the drop input, resizing and repositioning the first application window according the particular snap zone.

Just-in-time snap layouts

A method and system for providing access to virtual desktops may include receiving an input indicating hovering of a pointer over an icon in a toolbar, identifying one or more existing virtual desktops, determining a state for each of the one or more existing virtual desktops by identifying one or more instances of any applications that are currently running in each of the one or more existing virtual desktops and determining a running state for each of the one or more instances, and displaying a preview of each of the one or more existing virtual desktops in response to the hovering of the pointer over the icon. The preview may include displaying the running state for one of the one or more instances for each existing virtual desktop.

System and method of providing access to and managing virtual desktops

Display screen with graphical user interface

A system for generating windows arrangements for a display is disclosed, which includes a processor and a computer-readable medium storing instructions for controlling the system to perform receiving a first user input requesting to generate windows arrangements for a display; in response to receiving the first user input, identifying, based on contextual information with respect to applications, a group of the applications to be included in the windows arrangements for the display; generating, based on display information of the display and the contextual information with respect to the applications, the windows arrangements, each windows arrangement providing a different on-screen arrangement of a plurality of windows associated with two or more applications of the group and defining a size and position of each of the windows on the display; and displaying a selectable list of the windows arrangements for the display.

Automated on-screen windows arrangements

Semantic zoom techniques are described. In one or more implementations, techniques are described that may be utilized by a user to navigate to content of interest. These techniques may also include a variety of different features, such as to support semantic swaps and zooming 'in' and “out.” These techniques may also include a variety of different input features, such as to support gestures, cursor-control device, and keyboard inputs. A variety of other features are also supported as further described in the detailed description and figures.

Semantic zoom animations

Computerized systems and methods are provided for automatically generating an application overflow tool that is dynamically updated and arranged to provide improved access to popular or recently used applications. These systems and methods improve existing technologies by generating an overflow panel different from a task bar, such that the overflow panel provides access to most recently used applications that are not on the task bar. As such, ease of access to applications is improved to increase user efficiency. These systems also improve the way computers operate by leveraging existing GUI layouts to reduce computing resource consumption, such as memory, network latency, I/O, and the like, that would otherwise be required improve access to applications.

Overflow application tool for computing devices

Implementations described herein provide a component system that reconfigures interchangeable computing device components based on a current state of the computing device. The current state of the computing device is determined based on a hardware configuration of the device, a shell configuration describing software and firmware of the device, and/or context information describing a relationship between the device and its surrounding environment. Based on the current state of the computing device, an output is determined that specifies interchangeable components are to be activated and deactivated. The output is useable to reconfigure individual computing device functionalities, control a manner in which applications execute on the computing device, and adapt the computing device to its current state.

Interchangeable device components

Semantic zoom techniques are described. In one or more implementations, techniques are described that may be utilized by a user to navigate to content of interest. These techniques may also include a variety of different features, such as to support semantic swaps and zooming 'in' and 'out.' These techniques may also include a variety of different input features, such as to support gestures, cursor-control device, and keyboard inputs. A variety of other features are also supported as further described in the detailed description and figures.

Techniques for application launching in a multi-display device are described. In one or more implementations, an apparatus such as a mobile device includes multiple interconnected display devices. According to one or more implementations, techniques described herein enable application launching behavior to be determined based on context information. For instance, based on a determined context condition of a multi-display client device, an application launch behavior is determined and used to launch an application on the client device.

Application launching in a multi-display device

Techniques for inference of an intended primary display of a hinged mobile device are described. Generally, the techniques described herein improve a user experience when the user interacts with the device, such as to change the posture of the device. For example, the techniques described herein detect physical movement of a first and/or second display portion of the device. In implementations, the physical movement is recognized as a device gesture to indicate which of the display portions is intended to be used as the primary display. Then, a determination is made that the first display portion is intended to be used as the primary display based on the device gesture. Based on the determination, the primary display is initiated via the first display portion.

Inference of an intended primary display of a hinged mobile device

A technique is described herein that allows a user to control a user interface presentation provided by a computing device based on a force-dependent manner in which the user engages a surface of a force-sensitive input device. This manner of control allows any user to efficiently interact with the computing device, but is particularly beneficial to users who have motor-related and/or vision-related disabilities.

Facilitating interaction with a computing device based on force of touch

This document describes techniques for, and systems that enable, a multi-stroke smart ink gesture language. The described techniques enable a digital ink user interface that allows a display, that is capable of receiving a digital ink stroke from a passive stylus or an active pen, to receive the digital ink stroke as either a content input or an action input. The digital ink stroke may be determined to be an action input based on proximity to, intersection with, or chronological immediacy to a prior-received digital ink stroke. When multiple digital ink strokes are determined to represent a multi-stroke gesture associated with an action input, the action input is provided to the application, which can then perform the action associated with the action input. The multi-stroke gesture allows users to input both content and actions using the passive stylus or active pen and natural digital inking strokes.

Multi-stroke smart ink gesture language

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Robert Disano