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. 07, 2006
Filed:
Jan. 12, 2001
Ronald Joseph Stana, Raleigh, NC (US);
Edward Kurt Borchardt, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Ronald Joseph Stana, Raleigh, NC (US);
Edward Kurt Borchardt, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Acterna, L.L.C., Germantown, MD (US);
Abstract
Method and apparatus for launching applications on a computer. A launcher allows a user to quickly determine which applications are installed and to start one or more selected applications. The launcher accesses an operating system registry to determine which applications are installed and where each application is installed. The launcher presents information in a file formatted using a scripted language such as hypertext markup language (HTML), so that the file can be read by a standard web browser application, such as the well-known Netscape Navigator™ or Microsoft Internet Explorer™. Thus, a user is presented with a standard graphical user interface that he or she most likely knows. The user makes the selection by clicking with his or her mouse. The display may simply list the installed applications, or it may list all known applications, showing unavailable applications with a different visual attribute than installed applications, for example, dimmed or grayed out text. When the user selects an application, the launcher determines the location of the selected application from tags in the HTML file and launches the selected application, suppressing any browser dialog boxes normally associated with remotely starting applications by preventing the browser from navigating to the selected application.