the present invention is a web based operating system that provides general access to resources distributed throughout the internet . it provides a graphical user interface through which users may perform common “ desktop ” operations , such as invoking applications , copying files , and setting sharing attributes of files , and translate them to the operations that are appropriate for the resources that are the target of the request . additionally , the invention provides a general - purpose attribute store or registry to keep the persistent state needed by the webtop and other applications , including users preferences , application - invocation information , and application settings and any other attribute - type information .