Abstract: A system and method for automatic ways of prioritizing the presentation of windows on a graphical user interface (GUI) and for prioritizing and accessing information stored in cache that is used by a web browser. The viewing (tiling) priority of windows, the size of windows, and the position of windows on a GUI are automatically determined from the following criteria: the time the window was first opened, the time the window was last opened, the length of time the window was visible on the screen, the percentage visibility of the window, the amount of scrolling the window has undergone, the content of the window, the time of day, the number of window accesses, and/or some mathematical function of these criteria. Additionally, these same criteria are applied to cached information associated with web pages so that more “relevant” cached web pages are automatically stored in cache for longer periods of time before being discarded in a finite sized cache.

Abstract: A computer system having a video display runs an operating system that provides a desktop environment to a user and a file system. The desktop environment has associated systems settings that affect the desktop environment. In this method, a first set of values for at least a portion of the system settings are stored in a storage device in a computer network so that the first set of values is visible in the file system. A second set of values, for the same portion of the system settings for which values are stored in the first set of values, is also stored in the storage device such that the second set of values is visible in the file system. In response to a choice by the user between the first set of values and the second set of values, the system settings are updated to have the values specified by the chosen set of values.