Method and apparatus for providing contextual information between operating system environments

A method includes providing data and associated contextual information, to a first operating system environment by a second operating system environment, both operating system environments utilizing a common kernel. The data is utilized by the first operating system environment, based on the contextual information. The method may include installing the data as an application file, using the contextual information to understand that the data is an application file. An apparatus that performs the method includes a programmable processor, and memory containing executable instructions. The processor runs multiple operating system environments utilizing a common kernel. The second operating system environment is operative to provide data and contextual information for the data, to the first operating system environment, and the first operating system environment is operative to utilize the data based on the contextual information.