Runtime activation and version selection

US8522227B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Microsoft Corporation · US

Inventors

• Luiz F. Santos · Lynnwood, US
• Jesse D. Kaplan · Redmond, US
• David S. Mortenson · Redmond, US
• Richard Lander · Redmond, US
• Simon J. Hall · Seattle, US
• Mark Miller · Kirkland, US
• Richard M. Byers · Bellevue, US
• Ladislav Prosek · Redmond, US
• Sean Selitrennikoff · Sammamish, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Aug 24, 2009
• Grant date: Aug 27, 2013
• Expiry date: Jun 27, 2032

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06F9/44536
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A runtime activation system uses a set of policies designed to provide a balance between backwards compatibility and ease of migrating existing (non side-by-side aware) applications to new runtime versions. The system chooses the runtime version to activate when an application runs or when a runtime application programming interface is invoked based on the set of policies. The system implements these policies by consulting compatibility data associated with the application indicating the intent of the author and level of side-by-side support provided by the application and/or global configuration data. Based on the compatibility data, the system chooses policies that are right in the most common cases, and easy to modify in less common cases. Thus, the runtime activation system allows applications to be flexibly configured to handle new runtime versions in a manner determined by the application author, a system administrator, or others.