To enable some downloads the other day I placed https://*.microsoft.com into my trusted sites zone. All well and good, until I tried to log into MSDN subscriptions today. Follow along with me:

Step 1: Go to MSDN subscriptions homepage, http://msdn2.microsoft.com/subscriptions

Step 2: Hit sign on.

Step 3: Redirects to live to get passport credentials, https://something.live.com/somehing

Step 4: Credentials found (via live toolbar), redirect back

Step 5: Browser sent back to http://msdn.one.microsoft.com

Those paying close attention will notice that we've bounced from the Internet Zone to the Trusted sites zone and back to the Internet zone. Now, given that MS is great with security, ponder this: Does the site in step 5 have access to the passport credentials retrieved in step 4?

The answer would be no.

Great, what does it do then? Loop back to step 3. Indefinitely.

To make this even more fun, each time IE bounces between zones, it opens a new tab in the IE window currently configured to that zone.

I must say, my "kill IE as fast as possible" skills have gotten very rusty. Haven't had a need for them in a long time.

So, note to those out there willing to trust Microsoft: You must either trust them or not, no half measures.