Intelligent home screen for mobile and desktop operating systems

[0013]Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of computing device operating system user interfaces. According to an embodiment of the invention, an operating system executing on a computing device, such as a smart phone, can automatically move an application's icon to a prominent position within an operating system user interface in response to determining that specified conditions related to that application are currently satisfied. Alternatively, the operating system can automatically create an alias icon for the application in such a prominent position in response to determining that the specified conditions are currently satisfied, thereby leaving the original application icon in its expected (but potentially less prominent) position for later use.

[0014]A set of rules stored on the computing device can specify, for each application, the set of conditions that are to be satisfied in order to make that application's icon or alias icon prominent. The set of conditions can inv