A computing device (100) and computing environment displays a graphical user interface (110) that presents a plurality of icons (260). Each icon is related to a different aspect of a resident software application. The icons are used to indicate the status of their associated aspects of the software application. Changes of state of the aspects of the software application represented by the displayed icons are determined and used to update the displayed icons so that the displayed icons present current status information concerning the associated aspects of the software application.