I'm using VS 2008 and I notice a lot of wasted screenspace, such as the Error List upgrade I propose below. Is there any way to change the way panels are rendered to make them smaller? Or maybe some addon to VS that does what it does but with compacted panels.
Current Error List - Only 2 errors visible
Future - 6 errors visible in same space
I don't know how to customize panels the way you're asking, but I've found my own way of dealing with panels I don't need all the time.
I keep panels like errors, search results or output set to Auto-Hide. That way they can take up a pretty decent amount of space when I want to see the lists, but they're not visible at all the rest of the time. Works well for me. When I'm not using one of those panels the only windows that are visible are the solution explorer and the code editor.