Patent ID: 8539473

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, at a computer having an operating system, a user-defined context for notifying a user about software components available for installation; receiving, at an interactive object installed on the computer, a notification based on the user-defined context regarding one or more software components available for installation, the interactive object having a docked mode that renders the interactive object in a defined area on a desktop display of the computer and an undocked mode that renders the interactive object outside of the defined area on the desktop display of the computer, wherein the one or more software components available for installation are associated with operating system extras made available to owners of the operating system; receiving, at the interactive object, information regarding software component classifications and software components included in each software component classification, the software component classifications indicating different installation states including software components installed on the computing device and software components available for installation; receiving, at the interactive object, a set of object states for cycling through the information, each object state providing a different rendering of the interactive object for displaying different information, the set of object states including object states for each different software component classification, the object states for each different software component classification including objects states corresponding to the docked mode of the interactive object and object states corresponding to the undocked mode of the interactive object; providing, by the interactive object, a flip through of displays for displaying a portion of the information regarding the software components included in a particular software component classification, the flip through of displays provided in accordance with cycling through the object states for the particular software component classification which correspond to the docked mode or the undocked mode of the interactive object as rendered on the desktop display; and providing, by the interactive object, a selectable element corresponding to a software component included in the particular software component classification which, when selected, pauses the cycling through the object states and causes performance of an action with respect to the software component included in the particular software component classification.