Patent ID: 8769268

Claim:
In a computer system operating under control of an operating system having a graphical user interface providing support for displaying one workspace session at a time, a method for providing a logged-in user a simultaneously displayed second workspace session for securely running applications, the method comprising: displaying in the graphical user interface of the operating system a first workspace session of the computer system for a currently logged-in user, said first workspace session having a first set of privileges for miming applications under said first workspace session; while said first workspace session remains active and displayed in the graphical user interface of the operating system, simultaneously displaying in the graphical user interface a second workspace session of the computer system for the currently logged-in user, the second workspace session having a second set of privileges for miming applications under the second workspace session and using a virtual file system and registry that is stored in encrypted form on a file system hosted by the operating system; and securing said second workspace session so that applications running under the second workspace session are protected from applications running on the operating system that are outside the second workspace session, further securing the second workspace session by deleting the virtual file system and registry used by the second workspace session upon termination of the second workspace session, further securing the second workspace session by restricting access to peripheral devices from the second workspace session, so as to secure data created during the second workspace session, further securing the second workspace session by applying one set of firewall rules to applications running in the first workspace session and a second set of firewall rules to applications running in the second workspace session.