Abstract: A system and a method for providing customized graphical user interfaces and/or screen layouts in computer systems. A web browser is nested in an application. XML text files are used to describe one or more user interfaces. The application software uses the information (e.g., source code) in the XML files to generate the user interface. For dynamic updates this may be done “on the fly,” allowing changes to the files and the addition/deletion of files even at run-time. The general layout of a user interface is defined in an HTML-based template. The details of the user interface are generated by software which retrieves a selected XML display/editor template text file, populates the XML display/editor text with current system data, converts the XML data to HTML, and then populates the HTML template to produce an HTML-based text for display. The user interface is then generated from the HTML-based display text by the web browser.