Patent ID: 7454706

Claim:
In a computing system having a display device and access to local and remote resources, a method for providing a user with selectable links to local and remote resources in a manner that allows a user to easily find and select a desired resource without the user being aware of a source location of the resource, the method comprising: registering a plurality of local and remote resources at the computing system, wherein registering includes identifying one or more logical relationships between the resources; and automatically, upon an initial start-up of an operating system of the computing system, displaying a user interface which provides hierarchically arranged links to at least some of the plurality of local and remote resources registered at the computing system, wherein the user interface includes: a shell interface having a start page that includes: a customized heading region identifying the start page, the customized heading region further including a link for customizing the start page, a hierarchical links region having a plurality of hierarchical categories identified therein, wherein the plurality of hierarchical categories includes an activity center category, and wherein each of the hierarchical categories is visible upon initial display of the shell interface, and each of the hierarchical categories comprising: a top-level category heading identifying a logical relationship between a plurality of resources, the top-level category heading having a link thereon which, upon selection, removes the start page and replaces it with a second-level category page identifying a plurality of resources which have the logical relationship associated with the top-level category heading, wherein each second-level category page has a page heading region identifying the top-level category heading selected from the start page; and displayed in association with a corresponding top-level category heading, a lower-level list of a plurality of resources having the logical relationship identified by the corresponding top-level category heading, wherein the logical relationship of the plurality of resources in the list and on the category page is unrelated to a source location of the resources, and wherein each item in the list comprises a link to a corresponding one of the plurality of resources, and wherein the list of resources associated with the activity center category links to a plurality of activity center category pages, each of the plurality of activity center category pages having a particular theme and identifying local and remote resources related by the particular theme; wherein each top-level category heading and the lower-level list of the plurality of resources for each top-level category heading is visible upon the initial display of the shell interface.