Microsoft Shows Off Tool for Identification Management

Trying to simplify online transactions and make them safer, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates on Tuesday showed off a tool that manages all the user names and passwords that people and companies use to unlock the doors of the Internet.

Gates, the company’s co-founder and chief software architect, also broadly discussed Microsoft’s efforts to improve security in its coming Windows Vista operating system and the tech industry’s initiatives aimed at stopping malicious software, hackers and other dangers.

“We’ve all got a common challenge here, yet an amazing opportunity to let these digital systems be used in the broadest way,” Gates said at the RSA computer security conference in San Jose.

Gates highlighted a technology dubbed InfoCard that helps computer users corral their identifying information without the risk of losing it. It also could be used by companies looking to improve ways of granting access to their networks.

InfoCard is the Redmond, Wash.-based company’s latest attempt at so-called identification and authentication services. The first, Passport, was criticized because Microsoft created, centrally stored and controlled a single identity to be used on sites across the Web.

InfoCard, on the other hand, is more of a container that holds identities created by the user and the businesses on the Web. Login information for Passport could be stored there, as could the user name, password and other personal details for an auction or sales site.

Also Tuesday, Microsoft said it would launch a free test version of Office Live, part of the company’s plans to compete with the likes of Google Inc. and Salesforce.com Inc. by making more products and services that run over the Internet.

The test, expected to be available today, will provide very small businesses with tools to create websites and manage data online.