The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 12, 1996
Filed:
Mar. 01, 1993
Sanford A Staab, Woodinville, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A method and system for managing window configurations of a desktop configuration is provided. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a TopDesk system persistently saves the window configurations of currently-active programs of the computer system. These saved window configurations compose a saved desktop configuration. The TopDesk system displays within its window a representation of the saved desktop configuration. Each saved window configuration is displayed as a rectangle (called a ghost window) that is representative of the size and location of the saved window configuration. Each displayed rectangle preferably contains the title of the actual window for the corresponding program. The TopDesk system allows a user to move the displayed rectangles to modify the saved desktop configuration. The TopDesk system allows a user to activate a saved desktop configuration. During this activation process, the TopDesk system activates any currently-inactive programs that are associated with a saved window configuration and sets the actual window configuration of the program to the saved window configuration. Thus, a user can persistently save desktop configurations and efficiently activate a desktop configuration.