Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Ullattil Shaji

Rahul Gupta

William James Whalen

Rajasekaran Rangarajan

Shiaf Ramlan

David Pokluda

Jordan Frederick Cohen

Nikki Josephine Barry

Rajiv Poonamalli

Derek C Y Cheng

Yu Tan

Debi P Mishra

James George Cavalaris

Adam Joseph Lenart

David E Kays

Jordan Rian Cohen

Sharad Goel

Markus Horstmann

Derek Menzies

Ravi Kumar Bikkula

Carey Tanner

Mark Henriksen Phaedrus

Kenik Hassel

Tewfik Zeghmi

Giuseppe Zingales

Moinak Bandyopadhyay

Faisal Ansari

Yao Huang Lin

Mike A Treit, Jr

Nick Carlson

Rhynier Myburgh

Ashutosh Joshi

Matthew Westphal

Karthik Veeraswamy

Jordan Cohen

To measure usage of computing resources on a computer, a logging service running on the computer generates event data. The computer transmits the event data to an event processing system. With a large number of computers, each computer transmits its event data to the event processing system. The event processing system stores the event data in a storage system as a file system object, such as a stream or file, in which different data fields of the received event data are stored in a structured or semi-structured manner. The event data can be processed in parallel on different pivots using map-reduce operations. Such processing can include, but is not limited to, de-duplicating event data, aggregating event data related to a resource into measurements of usage of that resource, and grouping original data or aggregated data by user or group of user for further analysis and reporting.

Measuring usage of computing resources

Measuring usage of computing resources by storing usage events in a distributed file system

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for updating software components through online stores. A computing device interacts with an online store to download applications and frameworks that are distributed from the online store. The computer system includes an operating system configured to keep distributed applications and frameworks updated. The operating system can, automatically and without user intervention, intelligently schedule and attempt application and framework updates in a manner that minimizes user disruptions. The operating system can manage application and framework updating for any and/or all user accounts on a computing device. The operating system can manage updates even when each application and/or framework is to be separately installed for different user accounts that have the application and/or framework installed.

Updating software components through online stores

A database management tool may migrate a portion of a constrained database by transferring the portion to a constraint-free database from a first constrained database, then populating a second constrained database using the constraint-free data. The constraint-free data may be transformed prior to populating to update internal database identifiers. In some cases, the transformation may also update the data to a different schema of the target database. The database management tool may also include a load balancer that may monitor the loads on a distributed database and may separate portions of the database to different database instances to more effectively load balance the larger database.

Database transfers using constraint free data

A computer-implemented method for managing device drivers includes requesting a device driver update set for a plurality of devices connectable to a computing device. The method also includes receiving the device driver update set, installing each driver of the device driver update set on the computing device. At least one updated driver in the update set is an updated driver for a device that is disconnected from the computing device at the time of the request. The method further includes configuring the at least one updated driver for the non-connected to activate when the device is detected by the computing device.

Driver installation for targeted and non-present devices

A system and method for performing various operations on group policy objects, by manipulating group policy objects as a single entity to perform backup, restore, import and copy operations. The backup operation transfers the various subparts of a selected group policy object to a file system. A restore operation restores a backed-up group policy object to its domain, in the same state as when the backup was performed. An import operation transfers the settings within a backed-up source group policy object to a destination group policy object, erasing its previous settings. A copy operation transfers the settings from a source group policy object to a new group policy object. Copy and import operations can be cross-domain, and a migration table can be used to convert security group and UNC pathnames as appropriate for the destination domain. Backup management, rollback of incomplete operations, and support for application deployment are also provided.

Method and system for implementing group policy operations

A system and method for managing group policy objects in a network, including interfaces that allow access by programs or a user interface component to functions of a group policy management console that performs management tasks on group policy objects and other related objects. The interfaces abstract the underlying data storage and retrieval, thereby facilitating searching for objects, and providing the ability to delegate, view, change and permissions on those objects, and check and save those permissions. Modeling and other test simulations are facilitated by other interfaces. Other interfaces provide dynamic and interactive features, such as to convey progress and rich status messages, and allow canceling of an ongoing operation. Still other interfaces provide methods for operating on group policy related data, including group policy object backup, restore, import, copy and create methods, and methods for linking group policy objects to scope of management objects.

Interfaces and methods for group policy management

The description of an update package for updating a software application in an offline synchronization operation is presented. The update package includes update information for a plurality of updates. The update information includes a reference to the update payload and the relationships of the present update to other updates in the update package. A system for updating a software application on a client computer is also presented. An update agent includes a communication module and a media module. The communication module is configured to communicate with both an update source over a communication network, or the media module. The media module obtains update information from computer-readable media. The communication module communicates with the update source or the media module in the same manner.

Update package for offline synchronization of software updates

A system and method comprising a reporting mechanism for outputting an HMTL and XML document from a collection of hierarchically maintained settings such as group policy object settings or resultant set of policy data. The reporting mechanism provides a substantially complete view of which settings are configured (enabled) in a given group policy object, or a view for a resultant set of policy (that is applied to a given SOM), along with the values of the settings. The markup language format enables viewing a flat representation of the settings, and printing, saving and/or transporting of the settings. XML schemas describe a valid representation of group policy settings, and a valid representation of resultant set of policy.

System and method for reporting hierarchically arranged data in markup language formats

A schema that facilitates the centralized management and deployment of applications, components and services across a computer network. Centralized class stores are provided under policies associated with a directory container such as a site, domain or organizational unit. Class stores include definition, state and location information for applications and components, such that applications and components are centrally available as needed. For example, via the class store, updates to components or applications for users under an organizational unit are performed once in a centralized location, whereby users or machines may automatically obtain new versions of applications as they become available, or software implementations as needed from a centralized repository. Class stores may be configured to contain packages of component and application information according to functional areas, level of security access, or other criteria as determined by an administrator. Component categories (e.g., spreadsheet, word processor, and so on) may also be maintained, whereby a suitable application may be located by its function. For customized administration and programmatic query or installation of specific components and packages, the class store also includes a manager object that offers a set of interfaces and APIs.

Class store schema

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Sammamish, WA, United States of America

Ullattil Shaji