Jamie Thomson

I have been playing close attention to news around Windows 8 and one of the most notable snippets to come out is that the Metro-ised (is that a word??) version of IE will not allow add-ins. Ostensibly I think this is a good thing but it does mean that Lastpass (which I am a huge fan of) will not work and that bothers me; I have questioned this decision on a Windows 8 forum: Lastpass – how will it work in Win8?

I was placated somewhat by the news that website credentials will roam with our Windows Live ID (a feature that has been known about for some time and was confirmed on a blog post Protecting your digital identity published yesterday on the Building Windows 8 blog) however this is not a 100% replacement for Lastpass because:

• It will only work on Windows devices and even then only on Windows 8 and beyond
• Lastpass provides a number of other useful features (e.g. password generation)

Hence I’m in a quandry as to whether I will/should carry on using Lastpass when Windows 8 drops. Interestingly though the following statement has been released on Lastpass’s Product Roadmap:

• Windows Login Replacement

  LastPass will soon be tightly integrated not only with your browser, but also into your Windows operating system. You’ll be able to sign into your Windows login account using your LastPass master password and once done, be automatically signed into LastPass.

This is very interesting and points to what I speculate could be an unannounced Windows 8 feature – that is, the ability to login to Windows using different identity providersl. After all, if we can login to Windows using our Lastpass credentials, why not with our Facebook or Google credentials too? Up to now the only identity providers that we know for sure that can be used to login to Windows 8 are Windows Live ID and (for enterprises) Active Directory.

• Could it be that Windows will allow us to use other 3rd party identity providers as well?
• Will we be able to login to Windows using our Facebook, LinkedIn, Amazon or Google accounts?
• Is this why we are, today, able to associate other identities with our Windows Live ID via https://profile.live.com/Services/ ?

I’m speculating here of course but I’m looking forward to knowing the answers to these questions. Opening up Windows to other identity providers would be very compelling indeed, let’s hope this is what is happening.

@jamiet

UPDATE: On 18th March 2012 I asked Lastpass’s Twitter account if there might be any news:

Hey @lastpass, I’m eager to hear more about your Win8 stuff bit.ly/FPF8hJ bit.ly/uaIynDWhen do we get to know more?

— Jamie Thomson (@jamiet) March 18, 2012

They replied saying:  

@jamiet We’re still hoping to have an official blog post soon, no ETA at the moment though. Thanks for your patience!

— LastPass Support (@LastPassHelp) March 19, 2012

So, it looks like there will be some announcement at some point. Hopefully its not too far away.