Child window surfacing and management

A method of providing individual access to sub-window display elements comprising the steps of:

• displaying a task reference for an independently-executing application program that utilizes multiple of the sub-window display elements within a single window such that content of only one of the multiple sub-window display elements is visible within the single window while content of others of the multiple sub-windows display elements is not concurrently displayed within the single window, each of the multiple sub-window display elements having content provided by the independently-executing application program;
• receiving, from the independently-executing application program, individual sub-window registration information for at least two of the multiple sub-window display elements;
• detecting a first user action directed to the task reference;
• requesting, in a single request, from the independently-executing application program, individual thumbnails of the content of the at least two multiple sub-window display elements for which the individual sub-window registration information was received;
• and
• displaying a display element proximate to the display of the task reference, the display element comprising the individual thumbnails of the content of the at least two multiple sub-window display elements for which the individual sub-window registration information was received, each of the individual thumbnails being independently user-selectable.

A user interface generated on a display device by a computing device comprising a user input device, the user interface comprising:

• a task reference displayed in an active tasks area of the display device and associated with an application program utilizing multiple sub-window display elements within a single window such that content of only one of the multiple sub-window display elements is visible within the single window while content of others of the multiple sub-windows display elements is not concurrently displayed within the single window, each of the multiple sub-window display elements having content provided by the application program;
• a floating display element proximate to the task reference, the floating display element directly comprising individual thumbnails of content of at least two of the multiple sub-window display elements;
• the single window, displayed such that it appears to be transparent;
• and
• a bitmap of content of one of the multiple sub-windows display elements overlaid over the single window that is displayed such that it appears to be transparent, the one of the multiple sub-window display elements being associated with a selected individual thumbnail, the bitmap of the content being generated independently of the single window.