If you're still on an Atlas CTP and you're wanting to move to the latest ASP.NET Ajax Beta, you've got some work to do.  Here is the ASP.NET Ajax upgrade checklist you will need to follow in order to run under the new beta.  If you've done much with the JavaScript extensions (Ajax control extenders, etc.), you've got even more work ahead.  This whitepaper describes in detail the differences between the Atlas CTPs and the ASP.NET Ajax betas/RTM (don't worry - it's only 54 printed pages <g> ).

The power of the middle-click just increased.  Using Taskbar Shuffle, you can now close windows from the taskbar by middle-clicking their tab, but that's not the main draw to Taskbar Shuffle.  This utility is all about making the taskbar behave like you want it to.  You can set the taskbar to group tabs together without collapsing them (my favorite setting), but once the tab is created you can drag taskbar items to the exact order of you liking.  For other taskbar tips, check out control-clicking and file-dragging.

I'm currently working on some tricky CSS coding and have the need to test multiple browser versions.  Of course, Firefox is no problem: very little has changed in CSS rendering from version to version.  Internet Explorer is a bit more tricky.  I've been running the v7 betas for months now and I really didn't want to uninstall v7 for a few quick CSS tests.  v7 fixes a lot of the rendering problems that previous version had, and I needed to verify that my page looked reasonable at least in IE 6 if not 5.5 and 5.01.  I was considering setting up multiple VPCs to test, but then I ran across an installer called Multiple IE.  This handy utility works as advertised - it allows you to have multiple versions of IE installed concurrently.  I have had some problems with versions 4.01 - 5.5 crashing on me, but that's not a problem for quick rendering tests.  All in all, I'm quite happy with the setup.  Alternatively, if you are still running IE 6 and would like to give IE 7 a spin without a full install, give IE Standalone a whirl.  A word of caution, Scott Hanselman - among others - has had some bad luck running running a similar setup.  I have yet to run into problems, but I'll be sure to post an update if the tide turns.

If you've got a few minutes to spare, cruise on over to Google Videos for some "high quality" nerd-type entertainment.

After using Remote Desktop (mstsc.exe) to connect to a computer, the host computer often gets confused about how to draw maximized windows.  Since "Auto-hide the taskbar" is not checked, maximized windows should stop at the taskbar... but they don't - they go to the bottom of the screen behind the taskbar.  I see similar problems when I open "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" - the window is aligned with the bottom of the screen behind the taskbar.

The quickest fix that I've found is to change a setting in "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties", change it back, and click "OK".  Presto chango - the screen redraws and windows now maximize correctly.  Notice how the properties window now aligns correctly and the browser window status bar in the background is visible.