Roaming Application Settings Across Multiple Computing Devices

Abstract

Application settings are roamed across multiple computing devices. Provider modules on the computing devices are run to retrieve application settings to be roamed and to roam those application settings across the multiple computing devices. Application setting changes initiated on a particular computing device are added to a history of application setting changes on the particular computing device, and also added to synchronization communication module for communication to one or more additional computing devices of the multiple computing devices. Application setting changes initiated by one of the one or more additional computing devices are received by the particular computing device and added to a history of application setting changes on the particular computing device, and are also incorporated into the application settings on the particular computing device.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system configured to synchronize application settings across multiple computing devices, the system comprising:
 one or more processors; and   a memory comprising instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by the one or more processors, implement a synchronization service to perform operations comprising:
 causing a provider module to monitor a history of application setting changes for a particular application and on a first computing device that is associated with a user of the synchronization service, the provider module being specified in configuration information associated with the particular application; 
 in response to identification by the provider module of a first change to application settings on the first computing device, converting application settings associated with the first change from a format used by the particular application, to a different format that enables synchronization via the synchronization service with at least one other computing device; and 
 after said converting, adding the first change to a synchronization communication module and employing the synchronization communication module to communicate the first change to the at least one other computing device associated with the user for synchronization. 
   
     
     
         2 . A system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein causing the provider module to monitor the history of application setting changes is performed when the first computing device is logged into the synchronization service. 
     
     
         3 . A system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise establishing a synchronization connection between the first computing device and the at least one other computing device. 
     
     
         4 . A system as recited in  claim 3 , wherein the synchronization communication module is employed to communicate the first change to the at least one other computing device when the synchronization connection is established between the first computing device and the at least one other computing device. 
     
     
         5 . A system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise identifying computing devices that are associated with the user of the synchronization service and across which application settings are to be synchronized. 
     
     
         6 . A system as recited in  claim 5 , wherein the computing devices are identified based on selections received from the user to register the computing devices with the synchronization service for synchronization of the application settings. 
     
     
         7 . A system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise maintaining a record of computing devices that are associated with the user of the synchronization service and across which the application settings are synchronized. 
     
     
         8 . A system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise causing a list of one or more computing devices associated with the user of the synchronization service to be presented to the user, the one or more computing devices being selectable from the list for synchronization of the application settings. 
     
     
         9 . A server device configured to implement a synchronization service for synchronizing application settings across multiple computing devices, the server device comprising:
 one or more processors; and   a memory comprising instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by the one or more processors, cause the server device to implement the synchronization service by performing operations comprising:
 registering at least two computing devices to a user of the synchronization service to synchronize application settings across the at least two computing devices; 
 causing a provider module to monitor a history of changes to the application settings for a particular application and on a first computing device registered to the user, the provider module being specified in configuration information associated with the particular application; and 
 in response to identification by the provider module of a first change to application settings on the first computing device registered to the user, causing the provider module to:
 convert the application settings corresponding to the first change from a format that is used by the particular application to a different format that is used by the synchronization service to synchronize the application settings with other computing devices registered to the user; and 
 add the first change formatted in the different format to a synchronization communication module and employing the synchronization communication module to communicate the first change to the other computing devices. 
 
   
     
     
         10 . A server device as recited in  claim 9 , wherein causing the provider module to monitor the history of changes to the application settings is performed when the first computing device registered to the user is logged into the synchronization service. 
     
     
         11 . A server device as recited in  claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise establishing a synchronization connection between the first computing device registered to the user and the other computing devices registered to the user. 
     
     
         12 . A server device as recited in  claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise maintaining a record of computing devices that are registered to the user of the synchronization service, and wherein the synchronization service synchronizes application settings across the computing devices identified by the record. 
     
     
         13 . A server device as recited in  claim 9 , wherein the registering is performed by causing a list of computing devices associated with the user of the synchronization service to be presented to the user, wherein the list includes the at least two computing devices, and wherein the computing devices presented as part of the list are selectable from the list for synchronization of the application settings. 
     
     
         14 . A server device as recited in  claim 9 , wherein the history of changes to the application settings includes, for each change to the application settings:
 an indication of one or more changed application settings;   an indication of which of the at least two computing devices that are registered to the user initiated the change; and   a timestamp of when the change was made to the one or more changed application settings.   
     
     
         15 . A first computing device that supports roaming of application settings to one or more additional computing devices, the first computing device comprising:
 one or more processors; and   a memory comprising instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by the one or more processors, implement a settings synchronization module to perform operations comprising:
 identifying an application provider module associated with a particular application, wherein one or more application settings of the particular application are stored in one or more settings locations known to the application provider module, wherein the application provider module associated with the particular application is specified for the particular application in configuration information of the particular application and is configured to monitor the one or more application settings of the particular application for changes; and 
 cause the application provider module to retrieve the one or more application settings that change according to the monitoring and employ a synchronization communication module between the application provider module and one or more additional computing devices to roam changes to the one or more application settings across multiple computing devices that include both the first computing device and the one or more additional computing devices. 
   
     
     
         16 . A first computing device as recited in  claim 15 , wherein to roam the changes to the one or more application settings is to:
 identify a change to the one or more application settings; and   in response to identification of the change,
 add the change to a history of application setting changes, and 
 invoke a merge process to have the change added to the synchronization communication module for communication to one or more additional computing devices of the multiple computing devices. 
   
     
     
         17 . A first computing device as recited in  claim 15 , wherein to identify the application provider module associated with the particular application is to access the configuration information provided by the particular application when the particular application was installed on the first computing device. 
     
     
         18 . A first computing device as recited in  claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise identifying an additional provider module associated with an additional application, and causing the additional provider module to retrieve one or more application settings of the additional application having changes that are to be roamed, and to employ the synchronization communication module to roam the changes to the one or more application settings of the additional application across the multiple computing devices. 
     
     
         19 . A first computing device as recited in  claim 15 , wherein an additional provider module is associated with the particular application and an additional application, and wherein the additional provider module is used to retrieve the one or more application settings of the particular application having changes and one or more application settings of the additional application having changes and that are to be roamed, and to employ the synchronization communication module to roam the changes to the one or more application settings of the particular application and the changes to the one or more application settings of the additional application across the multiple computing devices. 
     
     
         20 . A first computing device as recited in  claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 presenting a user interface to a user of the first computing device; and   receiving a user selection of particular application settings of the application that are to be roamed across the multiple computing devices when the particular application settings are changed, wherein the user-selected particular application settings are the one or more application settings of the application.