InfoPath Dev

Not sure if this will help, but here is a blog post that explains this scenario in more detail: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/infopath/archive/2007/02/26/passing-data-into-a-form-input-parameters.aspx

Intregration with Outlook and InfoPath is rather limited, so I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't possible even with code.  Sorry couldn't be more help :(

You can have InfoPath submit to a library (lists are a little more complicated) and then promote your counter field.  Then in this form, create a secondary data connection to it to retrieve the largest value of the counter field. You could even promote additional fields if you need to be ablt to query that data (eg. username, etc.).  ...

Go into the properties of the read only text box control and click format.  Make sure that the grouping symbol check box is unchecked.  This should remove the comma. You can also try using a calculated value/expression box control instead if the control is always going to be read only.

The user will need to save the file to their desktop and then reattach the file for the changes to be saved.  If you open the file directly from InfoPath it will only save it to a temp location on your local machine and not back into the InfoPath form.  Hope that makes sense.

Should be possible if you're using SharePoint workflows.  You'll need the employee status field to be promoted, so that you have access to it in the workflow.  Then when you are building your workflow you'll need to have an action that checks if the status is equal to resigned move this item to another library.  ...

Sorting a repeating table isn't a function that is available out of box in InfoPath.  You can try using qRules (http://www.qdabra.com/en/products/qRules_new.aspx) or you'll have to write your own code to do so.

Performance should actually be improved moving to 2010, but there may be some specific items in your form which is slowing down performance.  Take a look at this article and see if any of these may be the issue in your form: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb380251(v=office.12).aspx.  The article is for 2007, but should also ...

Glad you found it!

I think the best way to do this is to upload the picture separately to a picture library then using the link to the picture in a picture control.  You can attach the file, but will have problems saving it.  And I believe the image in the rich text also requires a link.