Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Sean L Flynn

Jesse Clay Satterfield

Nazia Zaman

Rebecca J Deutsch

Chantal M Leonard

Michael A Schmidt

Sankar Ramasubramanian

David A Machaj

Edward Jason Anderson

Bryan T Starbuck

Christopher R Jones

Mark H Enomoto

Gayna Williams

Christopher David Brown

Ray Sun

Christopher Ralph Brown

Reiner Fink

Loren Kohnfelder

Eric Robert Berman

Sanjay G Shenoy

Eric J Hennings

Michael J Wallent

Srivatsan Parthesarathy

Matthew C Squires

This document describes techniques and apparatuses for presenting an application change through a tile. These techniques enable a user to see content associated with content changes to an application or other information about the application, such as a new article, new email, or a software update having become available since a user last visited the application. By so doing, the techniques enable a user to forgo visiting the application or permit the user to quickly and easily decide whether or not to visit the application.

Presenting an application change through a tile

In a graphical desktop environment displaying desktop components, a control is provided to track the position of a pointer on a screen, and when the pointer enters relevant regions with respect to a desktop component, a thin or thick border in displayed around the desktop component to enable a user to resize the desktop component, and/or a caption bar is displayed along an edge of the component to enable a user to move the desktop component on the desktop. The caption bar may additionally be provided with menu and close buttons, to enable the user to bring up a menu of properties and/or actions for the desktop component, and close the desktop component, respectively. When the pointer is outside any region relevant to a desktop component, no borders or caption bars are displayed, thereby resulting in a visually less cluttered appearance.

Managing position and size for a desktop component

A system and method of saving a Web page from a Web site on an Internet to a computer-readable medium is disclosed. A Web page is downloaded from the Internet to the computer-readable medium. The Internet address for the Web page is stored on the computer-readable medium. When the Web page is opened from the computer-readable medium, the Internet address is used to identify a security context for the Web page. By using the Internet address to identify the security context for the Web page, the system and method of the present invention allows users to securely view and execute Web pages downloaded from the Internet.

Saved Web page security system and method

A method for allowing a software vendor to notify a user of a software update is disclosed. At the time of installing an application, the user is prompted to subscribe to a software update channel. A shortcut (.lnk file) that the application installs is created with special information that identifies the application by a unique name. The channel is updated periodically based on the schedule suggested by the channel. When a new update is detected, the software channel delivers the software update to the user's computer and sends notifications such as email or gleaming the icon to indicate that a new software update is now available. Also, the next time the user launches the application through the shortcut (.lnk file), the shell automatically displays the update notification information to the user.

Software update notification

A method of creating a composite desktop built from Web content retrieved from one or more Web sites is disclosed. A component on a Web page can be selected and positioned on the composite desktop. The component can be a static image or an active desktop component providing dynamic content. An entire Web page can also be selected and positioned as a component on the composite desktop. Components can be selected for the composite desktop using one of several mechanisms. Selection of a control on a Web page causes the selection of a corresponding component on the Web page. A control panel utility allows the designation of a URL to select the corresponding Web page for inclusion as a component on the composite desktop. Images from Web pages and objects representing URLs can be dragged and dropped onto the composite desktop. Icons on a composite desktop are displayed in front of the composite desktop components. A user can create multiple composite desktops and switch to a different desktop when desired.

Composite Web page built from any web content

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North Bend, WA, United States of America

Sean L Flynn