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:
Apr. 09, 2002
Filed:
Jan. 04, 1999
Thomas W. Saxton, Issaquah, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for locating and for maintaining the locations of files within a directory tree structure. A file location request is received from a program module and a response is generated containing a file location identifying the location of one or more files within a directory tree structure. The file location request contains search criteria that identifies at least one file. If the file location of the component file has changed or has never been searched, then an attempt is made to locate the file and the new file location is returned. All file locations are stored in a file location cache so that subsequent searches can be minimized. When either the search criteria does not exist in the file location cache or the directory originally containing the sought file has been modified, the requested file location is searched for and the file location cache is updated.