AUTO-GROUPING OF APPLICATION WINDOWS

摘要

Described herein are techniques for automatically forming groups of application windows. The techniques may be performed with a computing device executing a windowing system, the windowing system having a user interface element that can be interacted with by a user to manage applications executing on the computing device. Each application may correspond to a separate process and application window. It may be determined that an operation has occurred that will evict the application windows of target applications from the display, and in response an application group may be automatically formed. The application group may have indicia of the evicted target applications. The application group may be provided to the user interface element, and when the user interface element is interacted with by the user the user interface element displays user-selectable graphic application indicators for both the application group and applications other than the target applications.

主权项

1. A method of capturing groups of application windows, the method performed by a computing device comprising a display, an input device, a processor, and storage, the storage and processor storing and executing a windowing system, the windowing system managing a user interface element that can be interacted with by a user to manage applications on the computing device, the method comprising:
executing the applications, each application comprising a respective application window, the application windows, when displayed, are receptive to user inputs that control the applications; determining that an operation has occurred, and in response automatically determining which application windows are displayed on the display and determining a display arrangement of the displayed application windows, forming an application group comprising indicia of the determined application windows and indicia of the determined display arrangement, and storing the application group in the storage; and providing the application group to the user interface element, wherein when the user interface element is invoked by the user the user interface element displays user-selectable graphic application indicators, wherein a first graphic application indicator represents the application group and other graphic application indicators represent respective applications other than the target applications, wherein when determined that the first graphic application indicator has been activated by a user input, the user the application group is used to automatically display the application windows indicated by the application group in the arrangement as indicated by the application group, and wherein when any of the other graphic application indicators are activated by the user the corresponding application windows are automatically displayed.