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:
Nov. 21, 2000
Filed:
Mar. 24, 1999
Scott Elliott, Beaverton, OR (US);
Symantec Corporation, Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus and computer method, that are generally referred to herein as ANTI-FREEZE.TM., are provided for controlling the operation of a computer running under a multitasking operating system (OS) such as WINDOWS.RTM. 95 or WINDOWS.RTM. NT operating system. When an application program becomes unresponsive to inputs from the keyboard and/or mouse, ANTI-FREEZE.TM. provides a user interface for identifying the unresponsive program and for causing the OS to send a message to the identified program. If the identified program responds to the message, ANTI-FREEZE.TM. determines if the identified program has any disabled windows and if so, enables a a disabled window. If the identified program does not respond to the message, ANTI-FREEZE.TM. modifies the stack or another part of the identified program in a way that causes it to become responsive to messages sent from the OS.