i would like to thank you in advance for reading and responding to this. i have searched for this issue and found some related solutions, but none that fix this and are specifically this issue. im using visual studio 2012 on windows 8. I used the asp.net web project template, I have included the reference to ajax and I also replaced the existing asp:scriptmanager(which is on the master page) with an ajaxToolkitScriptManager. I left the 'script' element and everything in between. ok so I add the tab container inside of a 'div' element on the default page(which uses the master page). I add the tab panels and the content templates. inside the content template I have a 'section' element which then holds all of my controls. in the designer the tab container appears and works as expected. the project builds and tests just fine, but there is no tab container in the browser. Ive had some controls partially render in the tab container, but they have no functionality. other ajax controls outside of the tab container work as expected.ive tested on the newest versions of IE, Firefox, and Chrome. I should also state that when I attempt to use a tab container on an empty web project, EVERYHING work as expected. i also copied the styling from the .css file that comes with the ajax example site. i have tried to include as much detail as i could think of. i am at the library so i don't have my code accessible at the time of this writing. if any more information is needed, i will gladly provide. thank you again for your help.