The SharePoint Service manager let’s you start and stop all the SharePoint 2010 services on your workstation.
This is useful if you are running SharePoint 2010 on Windows 7 (or may be Vista) and don’t want SharePoint to slow your machine down when it’s not really needed.
Visit http://sharepointserviceman.codeplex.com/ to know more about SharePoint 2010 Service Manager.
SharePoint 2010 is available in 2 versions namely Standard and Enterprise. If you have installed a standard version and want to convert to Enterprise features then you can simply change the license type by
Looks Simple.. But wait, Do you see the Textbox disabled? 
There is another way to change License type from Standard CAL to Enterprise CAL.
Keep in mind there is no turning back here. Once you upgrade to Enterprise version you cannot switch back to Standard version.
New SharePoint 2010 Exams Available in July
Announcing the availability in July 2010 of four new SharePoint 2010 exams:
MSDN has just published an online course for developers to learn about Developing for SharePoint 2010.
The course includes:
Check out the course materials here.
Microsoft has recently released SharePoint 2010 Developer Training Kit, a guidance that provides developers with advanced guidance on how to develop for SharePoint. Through PowerPoint decks, Hands-On Labs, Source Code, and Instructor-Led Videos, the developer kit walks you through an array of important developer topics including Developer Roadmap, Visual Studio tooling, Workflow, Business Connectivity Services, and much, much more.
You can download the Training kit here.
Visual Studio 2010 has lots of new and exciting features. One of my favorite feature is exploring a SharePoint site from Visual Studio. Yes! it is possible now and its very simple. Follow these simple steps.
Start Visual Studio 2010 and open Server Explorer. If Server Explorer is hidden open it using View -> Server Explorer menu or just by simply pressing Ctrl +W, L
Right Click SharePoint Connections and Click Add Connection. You will see the following dialog if you are not running Visual Studio with elevated privileges.
Simply restart Visual Studio 2010 under a different Account with elevated permissions and repeat the steps above. In the Input Dialog box enter the SharePoint site address and press OK. That’s it! You can now explore Sites, Libraries, Lists and lots more from Visual Studio.
SharePoint 2010 can be installed in Windows Vista and Windows 7 if you are running a 64 bit version of the OS. But if you try to install SharePoint 2010 in Windows 7 you will see the following error message.
Guess What installing SharePoint 2010 in Windows 7 or Windows Vista is not easy as it sounds 
There are few settings which you will have to make before starting the install.
Setting Up the Development Environment for SharePoint 2010 on Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 is a must read before installing SharePoint 2010 in Windows Vista or Windows 7.
