Patent · US Active

Method of virtualizing file extensions in a computer system by determining an association between applications in virtual environment and a file extension

US8387047B1 · kind B1 · utility

15Cited by
27References
17Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 3, 2009
Grant dateFeb 26, 2013
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 18, 2031

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F9/45533
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A system and method for virtualizing file extensions. The system includes a system environment, one or more virtual environments, and a shell extension. The shell extension detects a request to perform an action on a file in the system environment. The file has an associated file extension. The system environment includes applications for opening files. In response to detecting the request, the shell extension determines that the action is to open the file in the system environment and the file extension is not associated with any of the applications in the system environment. The shell extension queries the virtual environments to find an association between the file extension and an application, identifies at least one of the virtual environments in which the extension is associated with an application, and opens the file in a selected virtual environment.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.