A container application is a native application that provides a web based application with access a computer's system resources and windowing system. If a container application is associated with a window, then the web based application can alter or control many, or all, aspects of the container application's content area and meta user interfaces (Uis). Web based applications are downloaded from application servers and run inside container applications. A container application can run a web based application as a service. Services made from web based applications running in container applications are almost indistinguishable from operating system services when there is no associated window.