The Higgins and Bandit open-source projects are claiming a milestone in the development of open-source identity services with a link to a new Microsoft identity system. At next week’s RSA Conference in San Francisco, backers of Higgins and Bandit plan to demonstrate an early version of an application that shows open-source identity services that are interoperable with Microsoft’s Windows CardSpace and can enable Liberty Alliance-based identity federation via Novell Access Manager, a commercial Novell product.

Elcomsoft has added support for more applications and files formats to Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery. The program offers administrators a comprehensive solution for recovering passwords to documents and files when employees forget their passwords, or when they deliberately add passwords to documents in an effort to sabotage their companies. In addition to supporting Microsoft Word, Excel, PDF files, PKCS#12 certificates, PGP and LM/NTLM hashes used in Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 logon passwords, the program now supports PGP Whole Disk Encryption, Microsoft Money and OneNote, Intuit Quicken, Lotus Notes ID files, and MD5 hashes.

Microsoft has released their much-anticipated new ASP.NET AJAX framework, and ComponentArt is proud to simultaneously announce the immediate availability of Web.UI for ASP.NET AJAX–the first suite of controls designed specifically for the platform. Part of ComponentArt’s Web.UI 2006.2 release, Web.UI for ASP.NET AJAX augments Microsoft’s foundation with a set of 13 advanced user interface controls designed specifically for the new framework. Going far beyond basic compatibility or interoperability, Web.UI for ASP.NET AJAX offers true integration with ASP.NET AJAX in several key areas: All controls inherit from the Sys.UI.Control client-side base class, expose extensive client-side object models built for the AJAX Library type system, and feature the unique ability to be programmatically modified on the client–with immediate refresh of the corresponding screen area.

Middle managers around the world are dissatisfied and feel stagnant in their positions, according to an annual survey released Jan. 9 by Accenture, a global management consulting and outsourcing company. In a survey of more than 1,400 middle managers in nine countries, only four out of 10 respondents said they were "extremely" or "very" content in their current places of employment.

Microsoft is looking to supplant the ubiquitous JPEG with an image format of its own–and it’s hoping the debut of Windows Vista will help do the job. In 2006, Microsoft began promoting its own image standard, formerly called Windows Media Photo but renamed HD Photo in November. The company makes no bones about its ambitions: "Our ultimate goal is that it does become the de facto standard people are using for digital photos," said Josh Weisberg, Microsoft’s director of digital imaging evangelism.

Ars Technica has a very disturbing report about limitations on Windows Vista upgrades. Fundamentally, if you buy the Windows Vista Upgrade (rather than the full version), you will now be restricted from performing a full, fresh Windows install. Since we consider a fresh Windows install an absolute necessity from time to time (what with security issues, rootkits, etc), the Windows Vista Upgrade product is fundamentally limiting. Given that it requires that you upgrade on top of what might well be a compromised Windows XP install, you’re already starting off badly. Even though you’ll save a few dollars, we think purchasing the Windows Vista Upgrade with this limitation is ultimately a complete waste of money.

As we move forward into integrating Outlook 2007 into our lives, we’ll be exploring the new software from a wide variety of perspectives. In this interesting interview, we’ve had the opportunity to talk with Deva Hazarika, founder and CEO of ClearContext Corporation, a maker of a popular organization add-on to Outlook. Deva’s been hard at work updating the ClearContext Information Management System, but took a few minutes to answer OutlookPower Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz’ questions about Outlook 2007 from the developer’s perspective.

Read this OutlookPower article.

Once upon a time, when DOS walked the earth, the command line was the primary user interface for most of our computers. Then, Windows came along, and Microsoft seemed set on leaving the command prompt to dry up and wither into obscurity. Fortunately, Microsoft has again turned its attention to the command line and, in so doing, has produced one of the most compelling new Windows features eWEEK Labs has ever had the pleasure to test: Windows PowerShell.

For some people who ran Microsoft’s January 2007 security and products updates, clicking on the familiar gold shield icon was not much different from getting suckered into opening an email message infected with a virus or a worm Trojan. That’s because unless you checked before you clicked, you were unwittingly giving permission for Microsoft to install Internet Explorer 7.0. And in too many cases, users are experiencing application crashes or Web site incompatibilities that are rendering IE 7 and your computer useless for Web browsing.

A coalition of rivals charged on Friday that Microsoft’s new Vista operating system will perpetuate practices found illegal in the European Union nearly three years ago. The European Commission found in 2004 that Microsoft used its dominance to muscle out RealNetworks and other makers of audio and video streaming software and that it made its desktop Windows deliberately incompatible with rivals’ server software.