Patent ID: 7827185

Claim:
An apparatus for managing outputs of a first application and a second application, each application operable to execute on a data processing system, wherein output of the first application is executed on the data processing system, the apparatus comprising: a memory; a classifier for associating a first application and a second application with classification data, each application operable to execute on a data processing system, the first application and the second application each generating an output that is executable on the data processing system, wherein the classification data is stored in a classification data structure; a comparator for comparing the classification data associated with the first application and the second application with the classification data structure to determine a priority, the priority indicating a preference for one of the output of the first application and the output of the second application, the comparator, in response to determining the priority, accessing a rule base to obtain a rule associated with the priority; a generator, responsive to determination of the priority, for generating metadata associated with execution of at least one of the output of the first application and the output of the second application, the metadata generated based on the rule associated with the priority; and a transmitter for transmitting the metadata to a function associated with an operating system of the data processing system; wherein the classifier, the comparator, the generator, and the transmitter comprise one or more of logic hardware and executable code, the executable code stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium.