It appears Microsoft has removed the designer for XAML files from the latest release of Silverlight 3 Tools. The designer isn’t really gone, its just moved to the bottom of the editor and is hidden by default. To restore the designer view: 1. Open your .xaml file in the default vs editor. 2. Move your cursor to the bottom of the edit window (right underneath the horizontal scroll) and it should change to a split-style cursor 3. Click and drag up to reveal a pane that looks like the following: 4. ......