The standard flow of authentication/identity is like this
Try to authenticate without parameters
- I.e., rely on "environment", such as your current Windows login, and possible other implicit knowledge
If this does not work, present a login dialog; then try to authenticate using this username and password
If success, then we're in
Otherwise, retry a few times and then give up
Note how we can authenticate without ever seeing a password in a SuperOffice dialog
This flow - first try, then ask for more info (username/password), then try again - is common to Win & Web; in fact, all SuperOffice application will follow that pattern.
Note that if you specify a username and password on the command line to the Windows client, then that is an override of the ordinary logic.
In 7.1 sr1 we add a new preference that may be turned on so we do not first try to authenticate with AD: http://devnet.superoffice.com/Issue-Center/Product-Issue/?bid=9917