On your point about the properties window having no dropdown for control selection, the reason we didn’t do this is because we think selection’s better done in other places that give you more clues on what you are selecting, notably the Document Outline Pane (which you can see by right clicking on the design surface and clicking “Document Outline”), or by using selection synchronization from the XAML or main designer itself.

Thanks for taking the time to look at Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1! We hope you enjoy the next Beta when it releases (sign up at http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010/default.mspx to be notified when it does!) and look forward to your feedback.

Mark Wilson-Thomas
Program Manager, WPF & Silverlight Designer Team, Visual Studio