Microsoft moves one step further and has released the latest version of Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX v1.0 which was earlier known as Atlas. It is a set of technologies which has added AJAX support mainly to ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005 environments. Now all separate downloads for client-side script framework, server extensions and UI control toolkit are available.

Developers would be able to develop richer web clients which work pretty well with ASP.NET 2.0 applications. One flip side is that the new release has resulted in some major changes in the framework therefore existing ATLAS code implementation would have to be reworked but Atlas to AJAX 1.0 migration Guide would certainly ease your problems. Though some developers have expressed some confusion with regards to the naming of three separate toolkits downloads but overall the initial response has been positive.

Have a look at the three toolkit components:

* The ASP.NET AJAX v1.0 "Core" download contains the features fully supported by Microsoft Product Support, has a 10-year Microsoft support license, includes support for the core AJAX type-system, networking stack, component model, extender base classes, and the server-side functionality to integrate within ASP.NET (including the popular ScriptManager, UpdatePanel, and Timer controls).

* The ASP.NET AJAX CTP (Community Technology Preview) download. This contains additional higher-level features that were in previous CTPs of "Atlas," but which won't be in the fully-supported 1.0 "core" distribution.

* The ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit. This kit contains 28 free AJAX-enabled controls that are built on top of the ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 "Core" download. The project is collaborative shared source and built by a combination of Microsoft and non-Microsoft developers.