Patent ID: 7620899

Claim:
At a client computing system in a computing environment comprising a plurality of computing systems, the client computing system interacting with applications to present data in windows at the client computing system, the client computing system presenting data for one or more local applications running locally at the client computing system, the client computing system also presenting data for one or more remote applications running remotely at a server computer system through interoperation with the server computing system, a method for synchronizing the presentation of windows between the client computing system and the server computing system, the method comprising: an act of the client computing system identifying a client-side windows display priority order and a client-side windows state information generated at the client computing system for displaying one or more windows for local applications; an act of the client computing system receiving a server-side windows display priority order and a server-side windows state information from the server computing system, the server-side windows state information generated at the server computing system for displaying a plurality of windows for remote applications, the server side state information including creation instructions for recreating individual windows for remote applications at the client computing system; an act of the client computing system formulating a combined windows display priority order based on the client-side windows display priority order and the client-side windows state information along with the server-side windows display priority order and the server-side windows state information, the combined windows display priority a single display priority ordering collectively applicable to presentation of windows for both local applications and remote applications at the client computing system, the combined windows display priority order indicating that windows for at least two remote applications have different display priority orders, the combined windows display priority order indicating that a window for a first remote application of the at least two remote applications has a higher display priority order than the display priority order for a window for a local application and that a window for second remote application of the at least two remote applications has a lower display priority order than the display priority order for the window for the local application; and an act of the client computing system presenting the one or more windows for local applications along with the plurality of windows for remote applications at the client computing system in accordance with the combined windows display priority order so as to present a combination of windows from both local applications and remote applications based on the single display priority ordering, presentation of the windows including interleaving the window for the local application between the window for the first remote application and the window for the second remote application.