Patent ID: 8527896

Claim:
A computer system having processor, memory, and data storage subsystems, and a computer generated graphical user interface (GUI) for accepting user input commands, the computer generated GUI comprising: a first area containing a compact listing of menu items, the first area further comprising: an operating system (OS) specific function section which provides access only to OS specific functions, and comprises a first OS subsection consisting of commonly accessed OS specific menu items of the computer generated GUI; and an application program (AP) specific function section which provides access only to AP specific functions, and comprises a first AP subsection consisting of commonly accessed AP specific menu items of the computer generated GUI and a completely separate second AP subsection that expands to provide access to all AP specific menu items, wherein the OS specific function section is grouped completely separately from the AP specific function section; and a second area separated from the first area, the second area including an icon selected from a set of icons based on a location of a pointer relative to an associated OS specific menu item, wherein a subsequent selected icon will replace the selected icon upon a subsequent location of the pointer relative to a subsequent associated OS specific menu item; wherein the GUI is part of an operating system shell.