Auto-grouping of application windows

A computing device comprising:

• a display;
• processing hardware;
• storage hardware storing applications installed on an operating system, the operating system configured to manage execution of the applications and manage displaying windows of the applications on the display;
• the storage hardware further storing instructions executable by the processing hardware and configured to cause the processing hardware to:
• respond to a group-forming event by:
• (i) automatically identifying whichever of the applications have respective windows displayed on the display and by automatically obtaining arrangement information indicating whatever arrangement the windows of the respectively identified applications have on the display, and (ii) storing, in the storage hardware, an application group comprising application identifiers of the identified applications and comprising the arrangement information,
• provide the application group to a user interface element, wherein when the user interface element is displayed the user interface element displays user-selectable graphic application indicators, wherein a first graphic application indicator represents the application group and is displayed in the user interface element with other graphic application indicators that represent single respective applications other than the target applications,
• respond to interactive selection of the first graphic application indicator by, based on the representation of the application group by the first graphic application indicator, accessing the application group to determine to display, on the display, windows of whichever applications are identified by the application identifiers in the accessed application group and to arrange the windows of whichever applications are identified by the application identifiers according to the arrangement information in the accessed application group, and
• respond to interactive selections of the other graphic application indicators by, for each interactive selection of a single other graphic application indicator, displaying a corresponding window of whichever single application is represented by the selected single other application indicator.

A computing device comprising:

• a display, processing hardware, and storage hardware, the storage hardware configured to configure the processing hardware to, when the computing device is operating, perform a process, the process comprising:
• responding to interactive activations of applications installed on the storage hardware of the computing device by displaying corresponding windows on the display, wherein each interactive activation of an application results in a corresponding window being displayed on the display, and wherein icons are stored on the storage hardware, the icons respectively representing the applications and application groups, and wherein the applications are identified by respective application identifiers stored on the storage hardware, and wherein the application groups are identified by respective group identifiers stored on the storage hardware;
• responding to determinations to respectively form an application group by, for each determination, automatically forming and storing a respective one of the application groups comprising (i) a respective application group identifier, (ii) a respective arrangement information, and (iii) a respective set of application identifiers, wherein each arrangement information is determined according to a corresponding arrangement of whichever windows were on the display when a corresponding application group was formed, and wherein each set of application identifiers is determined according to whichever applications had windows displayed on the display when a corresponding application group was formed;
• managing an identifier list, the identifier list stored on the storage hardware, the identifier list listing one or more application-group identifiers and listing one or more application identifiers;
• displaying a user interface element by displaying therein (i) whichever icons represent whichever of the applications have application identifiers listed in the list and (ii) whichever icons represent whichever of the application groups have application group identifiers listed in the identifier list;
• respond to interactive selections of respective individual icons displayed in the user interface element by:
• (i) whenever an icon corresponding to an application identifier listed in the identifier list is interactively selected, displaying a single window of a corresponding single application identified by the application identifier, and
• (ii) whenever an icon corresponding to a group identifier listed in the identifier list is interactively selected, displaying a reconstructed arrangement of windows of whichever respective applications are identified in the corresponding application group, wherein the reconstructed arrangement corresponds to the arrangement information in the corresponding application group.