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:
Jul. 09, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 21, 1998
John C. Delo, Bellevue, WA (US);
Malcolm S. Haar, Seattle, WA (US);
Chetan A. Parulekar, Redmond, WA (US);
Tracy D. Ferrier, Issaquah, WA (US);
Benjamin Chamberlain, Redmond, WA (US);
David E. Gonzalez, Issaquah, WA (US);
David R. Mckinnis, Seattle, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, VA (US);
Abstract
A method and mechanism for automatically installing software implementations such as applications and COM classes as they are needed from an external source. When a software implementation is needed, the mechanism first looks to the local system (e.g., registry) for that software implementation, and if found, returns the information such as a local path needed to use the software implementation. If the implementation is not found, the mechanism looks to another source, such as a CD-ROM or a centralized class store of a network, to locate the needed implementation. When located, the implementation is downloaded and locally installed from the source, and a local path is returned in a manner that is essentially transparent to the user. Software implementations such as application products may be divided into features and components to improve on-demand installation thereof.