All of it seems blindingly obvious, but then it also doesn't look like a claim against any non-Windows OS would last 10 seconds in a court, as there are a ton of clearly Windows-specific claims.
1) Non-GUI applications (or applications without a window) should be terminated automatically 2) Applications with a top window can veto, but when they do the other applications are removed from the screen, so that the user can focus on the application veto-ing. 3) Users can be presented with a "Shut Down Now" button, to force the shutdown, ignoring any application vetoes.
Also, remember the description is not part of the patent, only the claims section is. As far as I see, the claims are OS-agnostic.
I'm not saying that they didn't copy it from windows, but I think the features were there before microsoft filed this patent (2005).
It would be somewhat remarkable if this never was done until 2005.
In win7 on shutdown on various different computers I constantly get empty dialogs saying "waiting for the following windows to close:"
With an entirely empty dialog...
The actual offending programs are Outlook and Steam. But MS programmers screwed up the implementation of this patent.
Just another example of a patent being worth jack without implementation.
