Patent ID: 7779427

Claim:
At a computer system, the computer system including a processor and system memory, the computer system including an operating system and ports for connecting other devices to the computer system, the computer system also including a registry that stores configuration data for the computer system, a method for configuring applications to communicate with a connected device, the method comprising: the operating system detecting that a device has been connected to a port of the computer system; the processor loading a device driver for the device in response to the operating system detecting that the device was connected; the device driver providing information for accessing a list of one or more applications the device indicates are to be enabled to communicate with the device when run on the computer system, the list of applications including one or more application identifiers and corresponding configuration data, each application identifier identifying an application that is to be configured to communicate with the device in accordance with corresponding configuration data for the application; and an installer receiving the provided information from the device driver; the installer using the provided information to access the list of applications; and the installer writing the one or more application identifiers along with corresponding configuration data into a device property store in the registry to enable the one or more applications to compatibly communicate data with the device when run on the computer system, enabling the one or more applications pre-enabling at least one application to communicate with the device, wherein the at least one application is not installed on the computer system.