Multi-user computing device configured for executing applications in multiple user contexts simultaneously

A computing device comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• at least one computer storage medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to:
• authenticate a first user with the computing device;
• notify a multi-user aware application that the first user has authenticated with the computing device, wherein the multi-user aware application is configured to execute in contexts of multiple authenticated users;
• authenticate a second user with the computing device;
• notify the multi-user aware application that the second user has authenticated with the computing device;
• receive a request from the multi-user aware application to invoke a multi-user aware platform application program interface, the request including a parameter comprising a user identifier of the first user;
• determine, by the multi-user aware platform application program interface and based on the parameter, that data associated with the first user and not data associated with the second user is to be returned;
• return, via the multi-user aware platform application program interface, the data associated with the first user;
• receive another request from the multi-user aware application to invoke the multi-user aware platform application program interface, the other request including another parameter comprising another user identifier of the second user;
• determine, by the multi-user aware platform application program interface and based on the other parameter, that the data associated with the second user and not the data associated with the first user is to be returned;
• return, via the multi-user aware platform application program interface, the data associated with the second user, wherein the multi-user aware application is configured to process the data associated with the first user and the data associated with the second user simultaneously and to process simultaneous input from the first user and the second user;
• and
• execute an instance of a single user aware application in a context of at least one of the first user or the second user, wherein the single user aware application is configured to retrieve at least one of the data associated with the first user or the data associated with the second user based on executing in the context of the at least one of the first user or the second user.

At least one computer storage medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by one or more processors, cause a computing device to:

• receive a notification that a first user has authenticated with the computing device;
• execute a first single user application associated with the first user, wherein the first single user application includes a first user context associated with the first user;
• receive a first request to retrieve data or settings associated with the first user, wherein the first request does not include identification information for the first user;
• in response to receiving the first request, invoke a single user application program interface that infers an identity of the first user from the first user context included in the first single user application;
• retrieve, via the single user application program interface, the data or the settings associated with the first user;
• receive a notification that a second user has authenticated with the computing device;
• execute a second single user application associated with the second user, wherein the second single user application includes a second user context associated with the second user, wherein the second single user application is executed simultaneously with the first single user application;
• receive a second request to retrieve data or settings associated with the second user, wherein the second request does not include identification information for the second user;
• in response to receiving the second request, invoke the single user application program interface that infers an identity of the second user from the second user context included in the second single user application;
• retrieve, via the single user application program interface, the data or the settings associated with the second user;
• and
• execute a multi-user aware application in the first user context and the second user context, wherein the multi-user aware application is configured to retrieve (i) the data or the settings associated with the first user and (ii) the data or the settings associated with the second user.