Abstract: Granting an application program access to a resource as a function of a privilege associated with the application program. An embodiment of the invention employs a persistent, individual identity associated with the components of an application program or a group of application programs to allow an operating system to identify and differentiate between different application programs or groups of application programs installed on a computing system. The identity associated with each component of an application program enables the identification and removal or uninstallation of the application program. The identity also enables isolation of resources of the application program and protection of operating system resources.

Abstract: Tracking creation of one or more files by an application program or operating system. A method of the invention dynamically maintains a list of files or other resources associated with a particular application program or operating system. The method maintains the list by detecting creation of a file, determining an identity for the file, identifying a list associated with the file identity, and adding the file to the list.

Abstract: Maintaining a set of runtime objects. A method of the invention detects creation of a runtime object by an application program or operating system. The method evaluates a predicate for a set associated with the runtime object to determine membership of the runtime object in the set. Further, one or more properties of the set may be applied to the determined runtime object members of the set (e.g., to control access to a resource).

Abstract: Managing the installation, execution, and removal of application programs by an operating system via an application identity associated with each application program. A method of the invention assigns the application identity to each application program and a resource identity to each resource associated with each application program. The method relates the assigned application identity and resource identity to enable manipulation of the application program and its resources.