Lynn Ayres: What is Windows Live ID? (Channel 9)

Lynn Ayres: What is Windows Live ID?

Posted: Aug 16, 2007 at 12:58 PM

By: Charles

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Windows Live ID (formerly known as Passport) is the identity and authentication system for Microsoft online services. Currently, over 380 million users have credentials that work with Windows Live ID. Windows Live ID Web Authentication is a new offering that enables you to add Windows Live ID authentication to your own Web site (details can be found here).

A while back, Catherine sat down with Lynn Ayres to discuss Windows Live ID developer offerings. The conversation starts out with Lynn describing how she got into software (turns out Lynn is an avid online gamer J), and then transitions to Windows Live ID around 00:03:17 and how it relates to Passport (00:04:19). Windows Live ID scenarios are discussed around 00:07:00.

Demos start at 00:08:32, and include other Windows Live developer offerings – like the Windows Live Contacts control and the Windows Live Spaces Photo control; the specific code that uses the new Web Authentication (an HTML iframe element) can be seen around 00:13:24; the Windows Live ID Client SDK is demonstrated around 00:16:05.

A few notes regarding changes that have occurred since this video was recorded:

· Windows Live ID Web Authentication has been released, and the documentation can be found here.

· The Windows Live ID Client SDK is still in alpha (you can learn more about the alpha refresh here) and will be released later this summer.

· In the Web Authentication demo (around 00:13:37), Lynn was accessing our integration/test environment (http://login.live-int.com). This functionality is now available in the production service and the URL should be modified accordingly (remove “-int” from the domain name: http://login.live.com)

· You can get an application ID for Web Authentication here. The connect.microsoft.com site Lynn referred to (around 00:14:13) was for the beta.

Lynn Ayres is a Program Manager on the Windows Live ID team.

The interview was conducted by Catherine Heller, Windows Live Technical Evangelist.

And remember, http://dev.live.com is the source for all things developer-related around Windows Live!

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This has been asked on, among others, the Live ID blog, for several months, and no reply whatsoever. Maybe Lynn (or someone else) can answer these questions here?

1. Will we ever be able to change our sign-in email address? I know that this is possible if your sign-in address is a non-Microsoft address, but the option is unavailable if you use a hotmail, live, et cetera address. Why does Live ID provide people who use Microsoft technologies with -less- options than people who used a non-Microsoft technology to create their Live ID?

2. Account merging. IIRC, about a year ago, someone on the Live ID blog mentioned that they were aware that people were asking for this feature, and that they were looking into it. Still no word. I have two Live ID's: one I use for Messenger, and another that I use for my MCP curriculum, Channel 9, Connect, et cetera. In short, for everything except Messenger. This is a less than ideal situation: the messenger alert feature on the Microsoft forums for instance, doesn't work. You can set this up to receive an alert on messenger if someone replies to your thread. Except, I'm signed in to messenger with account A, and I'm singed in to the Connect forums with account B. You can't tell the alert to go to a different Live ID than the one you're signed into, so no Messenger alerts for me. If I get Xbox Live, I'd use Live ID B to register. However, that would make Messenger on XBox impossible for me, because you can't tell it to use the contact list from another Live ID. I have messenger contacts on account A, not account B. But B is the one registered with XBox Live. Hence: no features for me.
All this would be solved quickly if I was able to merge account A with account B (and keep the sign in credentials of account B). However, this is not possible. Why not, and when will it be possible?

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Kryptos Backup People!

Aug 16, 2007 at 1:19 PM

Just watching video now...

I've ended up with 3 Windows Live ID's, is there any way to link the two other e-mails with the remaining one so I can just login with just one and all of those services will be avaiable?

Hope that makes sense?
Bas It finds lightbulbs.

Aug 16, 2007 at 1:33 PM

This has been asked on, among others, the Live ID blog, for several months, and no reply whatsoever. Maybe Lynn (or someone else) can answer these questions here?

1. Will we ever be able to change our sign-in email address? I know that this is possible if your sign-in address is a non-Microsoft address, but the option is unavailable if you use a hotmail, live, et cetera address. Why does Live ID provide people who use Microsoft technologies with -less- options than people who used a non-Microsoft technology to create their Live ID?

2. Account merging. IIRC, about a year ago, someone on the Live ID blog mentioned that they were aware that people were asking for this feature, and that they were looking into it. Still no word. I have two Live ID's: one I use for Messenger, and another that I use for my MCP curriculum, Channel 9, Connect, et cetera. In short, for everything except Messenger. This is a less than ideal situation: the messenger alert feature on the Microsoft forums for instance, doesn't work. You can set this up to receive an alert on messenger if someone replies to your thread. Except, I'm signed in to messenger with account A, and I'm singed in to the Connect forums with account B. You can't tell the alert to go to a different Live ID than the one you're signed into, so no Messenger alerts for me. If I get Xbox Live, I'd use Live ID B to register. However, that would make Messenger on XBox impossible for me, because you can't tell it to use the contact list from another Live ID. I have messenger contacts on account A, not account B. But B is the one registered with XBox Live. Hence: no features for me.
All this would be solved quickly if I was able to merge account A with account B (and keep the sign in credentials of account B). However, this is not possible. Why not, and when will it be possible?
Minh WOOH! WOOH!

Aug 16, 2007 at 1:59 PM

Hi, how will WL ID work in the future world of CardSpaces?

Also, back in the day of passport, for 3-rd party sites to play in MS' passport playground was really expensive. 6-figures $$$ I believe. Has this changed?
cheller Connecting the dots...

Aug 16, 2007 at 5:01 PM

Kryptos wrote:

Just watching video now...

I've ended up with 3 Windows Live ID's, is there any way to link the two other e-mails with the remaining one so I can just login with just one and all of those services will be avaiable?

Hope that makes sense?

Your question totally makes sense. We're working on ways to make it easier to work with multiple Windows Live IDs. Stay tuned
cheller Connecting the dots...

Aug 16, 2007 at 5:24 PM

Bas wrote:

This has been asked on, among others, the Live ID blog, for several months, and no reply whatsoever. Maybe Lynn (or someone else) can answer these questions here?

1. Will we ever be able to change our sign-in email address? I know that this is possible if your sign-in address is a non-Microsoft address, but the option is unavailable if you use a hotmail, live, et cetera address. Why does Live ID provide people who use Microsoft technologies with -less- options than people who used a non-Microsoft technology to create their Live ID?

We are aware of this problem and are working on it as well. Please understand, it's not that we want to limit options for these types of Live IDs - it's just that it's a more complex operation. Keep in mind that there are typically a large number of items associated with these accounts (like a mailbox, etc). But we understand, and we're working on it!
Bas It finds lightbulbs.

Aug 17, 2007 at 12:37 AM

Thanks for the replies, Catherine. Good to hear some answers on these issues.

cheller wrote:

Your question totally makes sense. We're working on ways to make it easier to work with multiple Windows Live IDs. Stay tuned

So, does this mean actually merging Live ID's, or keeping them as separate accounts? Or is it too early to tell?

cheller wrote:

We are aware of this problem and are working on it as well. Please understand, it's not that we want to limit options for these types of Live IDs - it's just that it's a more complex operation. Keep in mind that there are typically a large number of items associated with these accounts (like a mailbox, etc). But we understand, and we're working on it!

I realise that you're not actively trying to limit the options for certain people, but I thought it was odd, seeing how it is possible to change your sign in address when it's a non-Microsoft one.

Anyway, good to hear that you guys are still working on this. Any vague estimates as to when we might be seeing some of this stuff happen, or am I going too far?
Kryptos Backup People!

Aug 17, 2007 at 5:26 AM

Thanks for the reply. Much like BAS I have one and e-mail address for hot mail, one for messages and one which is for my personal e-mail address on my own domain but I redirect that to hot mail.....

It would be a god send to have one sign it and be able to access everything....

As Bas has asked any idea when this may be, this year, next year or the year after.....

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