Selective application and data offloading
Applications can be selectively offloaded to ensure that thin clients will have sufficient disk space to install an update. To enable this offloading, a service can be employed to track how long each application is used on the thin client during a particular time period. Based on this usage of each application, the service can assign a rank to each application. The service can also monitor the amount of free space on the disk to determine whether it has fallen below a threshold. If so, the service can employ the ranks to identify applications to be offloaded them by copying an install location folder for each application to a remote repository and then deleting each copied install location folder. When the thin client includes a write filter, the service can commit the deletes of the install location folders so that the applications will remain offloaded after reboot.
1. A method, performed by a service that executes on a computing device that includes a write filter, for selectively offloading applications from the computing device, the method comprising:
periodically monitoring which application a user of the computing device is using by determining which application has focus on the computing device;
based on the monitoring, maintaining a usage time of each of a plurality of applications that the user has used over a period of time, each usage time representing how long the user has used the respective application during the period of time by defining how long the respective application has had focus on the computing device during the period of time;
detecting that free space available on a disk of the computing device has fallen below a defined threshold;
in response to the detection, using the usage time and a size for each of the plurality of applications to assign a rank to the respective application;
identifying one or more of the plurality of applications to be offloaded, each of the one or more identified applications being identified based on the rank assigned to the respective application; and
offloading each of the one or more identified applications by:
causing a copy of an install location folder for the respective identified application to be copied to a remote repository;
deleting the install location folder for the respective identified application from the computing device; and
causing the write filter to commit the delete of the install location folder for the respective application to thereby cause the install location folder to be deleted from the disk.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of applications are defined as non-critical applications such that only non-critical applications are identified to be offloaded.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the one or more of the plurality of applications to be offloaded comprises determining that the rank assigned to each of the one or more applications is higher than the rank assigned to other applications of the plurality of applications.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the rank is assigned to the respective application periodically.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the remote repository is identified in configuration files stored on the computing device.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is a thin client.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to the detection, identifying one or more data files to be offloaded; and
offloading each of the one or more identified data files.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
restoring a first application of the one or more offloaded applications in response to the user selecting the first application.
9. One or more computer storage media storing computer executable instructions which when executed by one or more processors of a computing device that includes a write filter implement a method for selectively offloading applications from the computing device, the method comprising:
periodically monitoring which application a user of the computing device is using by determining which application has focus on the computing device;
based on the monitoring, maintaining a usage time of each of a plurality of non-critical applications that the user has used over a period of time, each usage time representing how long the user has used the respective non-critical application during the period of time by defining how long the respective non-critical application has had focus on the computing device during the period of time;
assigning a rank to each of the plurality of non-critical applications based on the usage time and a size of the respective non-critical application;
detecting that free space available on a disk of the computing device has fallen below a defined threshold;
in response to the detection, identifying a first application of the plurality of non-critical applications that has been assigned a highest rank; and
offloading the first application by causing a copy of an install location folder of the first application to be stored in a remote repository, deleting the install location folder of the first application from the computing device, and causing the write filter to delete the install location folder of the first application from the disk.
10. The computer storage media of claim 9 , wherein the first application has the lowest usage time.
11. The computer storage media of claim 9 , wherein the method further comprises:
restoring the first application by causing the copy of the install location folder of the first application to be stored on the disk.
12. The computer storage media of claim 11 , wherein restoring the first application comprises:
receiving input from the user that requests that the first application be executed; and
determining that the copy of the install location folder of the first application can be stored on the disk without causing the free space available on the disk to fall below the defined threshold.
13. A method, performed by a service that executes on a thin client that includes a write filter, for selectively offloading applications from the thin client, the method comprising:
periodically monitoring which application a user of the thin client is using by determining which application has focus on the computing device;
based on the monitoring, maintaining a usage time of each of a plurality of applications that the user has used over a period of time, each usage time representing how long the user has used the respective application during the period of time by defining how long the respective application has had focus on the computing device during the period of time;
detecting that free space available on a disk of the thin client has fallen below a defined threshold;
in response to the detection, using the usage time and a size for each of the plurality of applications to assign a rank to the respective application;
identifying one or more of the plurality of applications to be offloaded, each of the one or more identified applications being identified based on the rank assigned to the respective application, each of the one or more identified applications comprising a non-critical application; and
offloading each of the one or more identified applications by:
causing a copy of an install location folder for the respective application to be stored on a remote repository;
deleting the install location folder for the respective application; and
invoking commit functionality of the write filter to cause the install location folder for the respective application to be deleted from the disk.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the rank is assigned to the respective application periodically.
15. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
in response to the detection, identifying one or more data files to be offloaded; and
offloading each of the one or more identified data files.
16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the usage time for each of the plurality of applications is a sum of a duration of each monitoring period during which the respective application has focus during the period of time.