IE's EPM (Enhanced Protected Mode) mode provides separate containers for web storage between desktop and Metro mode when using the Internet Zone. There's a page which discusses the detail but never really states why it behaves like this. It seems to me that this is unnecessarily complex and will lead to user confusion and angst - "why does switching to desktop mode lose my session/cookies/storage?" or more simply - "why do I have to login again?". It's also arguably a security risk since users will have multiple sessions/cookies active so could inadvertently leave themselves logged in or could lead to duplicate transactions because items may be placed in the basket in separate containers etc. It would be less of a concern if users couldn't easily switch, but of course they can because MS has kindly put a menu item on the Metro page to "View in the Desktop"!? It all seems to be related to providing enterprise users with the ability to maintain and configure a setup to provide greater access/functionality to intranet sites than you would want for untrusted Internet sites (enabling various plugins and the like).
To a degree, fair enough, but it's mostly as a result of intranet sites adopting features that weren't standardised or hardened sufficiently in the first place (ActiveX, Java etc.). These need to be got rid of though this will cost companies dearly - replacing existing functionality with something else but with no significant added value to the business bar adherence to standards/security compliance etc. is a hard sell.
So MS is; from one viewpoint, forced into this approach. The problem is it just adds more weight to my view that MS is so dependent on the enterprise customer and supporting the legacy of cruft they (MS & corporate intranets) have spawned over so many years that MS are no longer able to provide a clean, consistent and usable system (some would say they never were...).
Violation of rule #1 - Keep it Simple!
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