Abstract: A performance monitoring system is described herein that works with a hypervisor to reserve resources outside of a virtual machine to monitor performance of an application running within the virtual machine. The application receives the guaranteed amount of resources specified by the virtual machine's specifications, and the monitoring consumes resources not associated with the virtual machine. The application running in the virtual machine is already isolated by the hypervisor from the physical machine, and thus additional burdens on the physical machine that allow the hypervisor to continue meeting guarantees to the virtual machine will not impact application performance. The performance monitoring system provides instrumentation of deployed applications that information technology (IT) personnel can dynamically turn on and off without affecting the performance of the deployed application.

Abstract: A personal datacenter system is described herein that provides a framework for leveraging multiple heterogeneous computers in a dynamically changing environment together as an ad-hoc cluster for performing parallel processing of various tasks. A home environment is much more heterogeneous and dynamic than a typical datacenter, and typical datacenter scheduling strategies do not work well for these types of small clusters. Machines in a home are likely to be powered on and off, be removed and taken elsewhere, and be connected by an ad-hoc network topology with a mix of wired and wireless technologies. The personal data center system provides components to overcome these differences. The system identifies a dynamically available set of machines, characterizes their performance, discovers the network topology, and monitors the available communications bandwidth between machines.

Abstract: A secure location system is described herein that leverages location-based services and hardware to make access decisions. Many mobile computers have location devices, such as GPS. They also have a trusted platform module (TPM) or other security device. Currently GPS location data is made directly accessible to untrusted application code using a simple protocol. The secure location system provides a secure mechanism whereby the GPS location of a computer at a specific time can be certified by the operating system kernel and TPM. The secure location system logs user activity with a label indicating the geographic location of the computing device at the time of the activity. The secure location system can provide a difficult to forge, time-stamped location through a combination of kernel-mode GPS access and TPM security hardware. Thus, the secure location system incorporates secure location information into authorization and other operating system decisions.

Abstract: A personal datacenter system is described herein that provides a framework for leveraging multiple heterogeneous computers in a dynamically changing environment together as an ad-hoc cluster for performing parallel processing of various tasks. A home environment is much more heterogeneous and dynamic than a typical datacenter, and typical datacenter scheduling strategies do not work well for these types of small clusters. Machines in a home are likely to be powered on and off, be removed and taken elsewhere, and be connected by an ad-hoc network topology with a mix of wired and wireless technologies. The personal data center system provides components to overcome these differences. The system identifies a dynamically available set of machines, characterizes their performance, discovers the network topology, and monitors the available communications bandwidth between machines.

Abstract: A performance monitoring system is described herein that works with a hypervisor to reserve resources outside of a virtual machine to monitor performance of an application running within the virtual machine. The application receives the guaranteed amount of resources specified by the virtual machine's specifications, and the monitoring consumes resources not associated with the virtual machine. The application running in the virtual machine is already isolated by the hypervisor from the physical machine, and thus additional burdens on the physical machine that allow the hypervisor to continue meeting guarantees to the virtual machine will not impact application performance. The performance monitoring system provides instrumentation of deployed applications that information technology (IT) personnel can dynamically turn on and off without affecting the performance of the deployed application.

Abstract: A secure location system is described herein that leverages location-based services and hardware to make access decisions. Many mobile computers have location devices, such as GPS. They also have a trusted platform module (TPM) or other security device. Currently GPS location data is made directly accessible to untrusted application code using a simple protocol. The secure location system provides a secure mechanism whereby the GPS location of a computer at a specific time can be certified by the operating system kernel and TPM. The secure location system logs user activity with a label indicating the geographic location of the computing device at the time of the activity. The secure location system can provide a difficult to forge, time-stamped location through a combination of kernel-mode GPS access and TPM security hardware. Thus, the secure location system incorporates secure location information into authorization and other operating system decisions.

Abstract: Routing options for fuel efficient use of a motor vehicle employing a GPS-based navigation system are computed based on travel information and external data. A navigation device receives route input from a driver or by recording a travelled route. External data such as traffic conditions, weather conditions, actual fuel consumption, road blockages, traffic light configurations, and the like is received from one or more networked information sources. A fuel efficient route based on the original route and the received external data is computed for the whole route or individual sections between stops on the route for display to the driver. Fuel efficient route(s) may be recomputed with up-to-date external data upon driver request, predefined intervals, or updates to external data.

Abstract: A method and system for automatically displaying content of a window on a display that has changed orientation is described. The content of a window, such as a dialog box, that has been authored for a particular size is repositioned and resized such that the window is viewable in its entirety when the display screen orientation is changed (e.g., from portrait to landscape.) A scroll bar is added to allow full access to content that is not visible within the display screen when necessary. Likewise, the scrollbar is removed when the scrollbar is no longer necessary in the new orientation. The repositioning and resizing of the window, as well as the addition or removal of the scrollbar occurs without interruption of other operating system applications.