Abstract: A compliance interface is disclosed that takes in queries from applications which may want to know if they are compliant with associated polices stored on a computing system. The interface can then interpret these queries and provide notifications and instructions to the applications. Notifications may give notice of how a policy may impact an application, and instructions may tell an application how to behave in order to stay compliant with the policies. In one aspect, the interface exposes policies set forth by parents. Via a management control panel, parents can set or alter various policies, stored in a settings store, to protect children from contact with undesirable content. The interface interprets these policies to ensure that applications, such as those provided by third party vendors, are compliant with the wishes set forth in the parents' policies.

Abstract: Mechanisms are disclosed for detecting protocols independently of the ports used by streams associated with the protocols or applications that may send out such streams. The detecting may entail using a content filter that is hosted on a networking stack, where the content filter may be composed of a stream buffer and handlers for detecting the protocols. The handlers may be further used to modify streams incoming to a port or streams outgoing from an application. The handlers can modify the streams in a variety of ways, including reading, inserting, replacing, deleting, and completing data in the streams according to some policy criteria, such as those set by parental controls. Individual handlers may be selected from a plurality or set of handlers so that they can be matched up to the appropriate streams.

Abstract: A compliance interface is disclosed that takes in queries from applications which may want to know if they are compliant with associated polices stored on a computing system. The interface can then interpret these queries and provide notifications and instructions to the applications. Notifications may give notice of how a policy may impact an application, and instructions may tell an application how to behave in order to stay compliant with the policies. In one aspect, the interface exposes policies set forth by parents. Via a management control panel, parents can set or alter various policies, stored in a settings store, to protect children from contact with undesirable content. The interface interprets these policies to ensure that applications, such as those provided by third party vendors, are compliant with the wishes set forth in the parents' policies.

Abstract: A compliance interface is disclosed that takes in queries from applications which may want to know if they are compliant with associated polices stored on a computing system. The interface can then interpret these queries and provide notifications and instructions to the applications. Notifications may give notice of how a policy may impact an application, and instructions may tell an application how to behave in order to stay compliant with the policies. In one aspect, the interface exposes policies set forth by parents. Via a management control panel, parents can set or alter various policies, stored in a settings store, to protect children from contact with undesirable content. The interface interprets these policies to ensure that applications, such as those provided by third party vendors, are compliant with the wishes set forth in the parents' policies.

Abstract: Communications provided via e-mail, instant messaging, chat, and web-based telephony applications, are monitored and restricted at a computer host. In one approach, messages from unknown or unsafe senders are intercepted and stored in a location inaccessible to all but an authorized person, until they can be reviewed by the authorized person, such as a parent. Via a user interface, the authorized user can review the messages at a later time to determine if the intended recipient, such as a child, should be able to access them. Once access is authorized, the stored messages are retrieved and provided to the recipient. In another aspect, a shared allow/block contact list identifies a user having different user names from one or more service providers. The contact list can integrate users from different services and communication modes. In another aspect, notification of monitoring is provided in the monitored messages or in newly generated messages.

Abstract: A compliance interface is disclosed that takes in queries from applications which may want to know if they are compliant with associated polices stored on a computing system. The interface can then interpret these queries and provide notifications and instructions to the applications. Notifications may give notice of how a policy may impact an application, and instructions may tell an application how to behave in order to stay compliant with the policies. In one aspect, the interface exposes policies set forth by parents. Via a management control panel, parents can set or alter various policies, stored in a settings store, to protect children from contact with undesirable content. The interface interprets these policies to ensure that applications, such as those provided by third party vendors, are compliant with the wishes set forth in the parents' policies.

Abstract: Mechanisms are disclosed for detecting protocols independently of the ports used by streams associated with the protocols or applications that may send out such streams. The detecting may entail using a content filter that is hosted on a networking stack, where the content filter may be composed of a stream buffer and handlers for detecting the protocols. The handlers may be further used to modify streams incoming to a port or streams outgoing from an application. The handlers can modify the streams in a variety of ways, including reading, inserting, replacing, deleting, and completing data in the streams according to some policy criteria, such as those set by parental controls. Individual handlers may be selected from a plurality or set of handlers so that they can be matched up to the appropriate streams.

Abstract: Various internet content filtering mechanisms are disclosed. One such mechanism is a filtering service that uses a filter stack and at least two caches. The filter stack can access these caches during its execution of objects. One of the caches could be a cross-user cache that contains information relevant for internet content to a particular user, but this information could be also used by other users. The other cache could be a cross-application cache that contains information relevant for particular applications, but this information could also be used by other applications. The filtering service can be nicely integrated in an operating system to provide a centralized framework for the filtering of internet content.

Abstract: Techniques and tools are described for creating and using application identifiers that act as “fingerprints” for applications. In one aspect, an identifier generation algorithm is applied to application data and an application identifier is generated. The application data comprises graphical icon data, and can further comprise other data (e.g., executable name, registry data). The identifier generation algorithm can be a hashing algorithm that generates a hash value. The application identifier can be sent in a database query, and a database can return results indicating, for example, whether metadata can be obtained from a metadata service, or whether the software application is of a particular type (e.g., a gaming-related application). Application identifiers can be stored, for example, in a data file along with one or more other application identifiers for other software applications. Described techniques and tools can be used in a graphical user interface-based gaming activity center.