Patent ID: 7421697
Filing Date: 2008-09-02
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. An information processing apparatus for operating upon electronic data via a central processing unit, and which supports multiple users, including at least a first user and a second user, by presenting independent and distinct user environments for each user, comprising: user switching means providing a change in presentation of a display from a first user's independent and distinct user environment to a second user's independent and distinct user environment without completely terminating a first application instance started by the first user, such that there are concurrent logged in users but only one user at a time can be the currently active user, the second user is prevented from sending commands to the first application instance started by the first user, and the first user is prevented from sending commands to a second application instance started by the second user; wherein at a time of switching the first user to the second user by said user switching means, data of the first application instance started up by the first user that has not yet been stored to a non-volatile storage medium is stored as a temporary storage file on the non-volatile storage medium without further intervention by the first user; wherein the temporary storage file includes data generated or edited by the first user and information indicating whether the temporary storage file is valid or invalid; wherein when the first user is brought into an inactive state by switching operation using said user switching means, the information indicating the validity of the temporary storage file is set to indicate that the temporary storage file is valid, and is stored together with the data generated or edited by the first user, and when the first user is brought into an active state, it is determined whether the information stored in the temporary storage file is needed to recover from a data loss, and after any necessary restoration is executed, the temporary storage file is either deleted or the information indicating the validity of the temporary storage file is set to indicate that the temporary storage file is invalid.