Patent ID: 7511682

Claim:
In a computing environment having a computer system, a system comprising: a portable personal computer that includes: a processing unit; a built-in display coupled to the processing unit to output information to a user of the portable personal computer, the built-in display including a main display built into a first side of the built-in display and an auxiliary display built into a second side of the built-in display, wherein the auxiliary display is secondary to the main display and has limited display capabilities in at least size and resolution with respect to the main display, and such that the limited display capabilities of the auxiliary display limit display of information on the auxiliary display to only a single application at any given time; a set of data elements specific to the user of the portable personal computer, the set of data elements each including one or more context properties defining in what contexts the data elements, while remaining accessible to the user of the portable personal computer, are not to provide information to the auxiliary display device, and wherein the context properties include definitions prohibiting display of one or more data elements of the set of data elements on the auxiliary display, but not the main display, when another person other than the user is determined to be near the portable personal computer; and a service coupled to a context sensor and that manages the output of information on the auxiliary display based on the current context, wherein the service is configured to: receive an indication that another person other than the user is near the portable personal computer; identify, using the one or more context properties, a first subset of the set of data elements specific to the user that includes one or more data elements which are available for display of information an the main display and the auxiliary display device for the current context, and a second subset of the set of data elements specific to the user that includes one or more data elements which are available for display of information on the main display device and which are not to display information on the auxiliary display device for the current context; and cause the auxiliary display device to display only information from the data elements specific to the user that are of the first subset of the set of data elements while the another person is detected to be near the portable personal computer, thereby abstaining from display information from the second subset of the data elements.