Alex Barnett:

From the press release at the Web Standards Project (WaSP):

"Today Visual Studio 2005 and ASP.NET 2.0, currently in beta, create XHTML 1.0 transitional markup by default and provide real-time standards and browser markup validation. Developers can validate to XHTML Strict, Transitional and Frameset Document Type Definitions (DTDs), as well as validate their applications against a variety of other standards and browsers including IE6, Mozilla, FireFox, and Opera. Microsoft's Web development tools in Visual Studio 2005 also allow developers to create documents that conform to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)."

What about IE? In response to a comment asking if IE team was considered part of the Task Force, Molly Holzshlag replies:

"Yes, we are talking with IE developers.

No, I can’t make any predictions regarding IE’s future. Microsoft will have to comment on that.

However, I will say that all the developers we’re talking with both inside the TF and as an extension of the TF are very, very interested, open to our suggestions and commentary, and it is overall in my estimation a really cool experience to be working with Microsoft as opposed to against them."