>3 instances of VS is asking for trouble. Likely to cause the universe to explode.

Was that said tongue-in-cheek? I just took a quick poll of the 4 developers I work with. We all typically have 2 instances open, 3 is not unusual, and one of us often has 6-7 instances open (don't ask). None of us has ever experienced an issue. VS2010 and VS2012. WIN 7 Pro 64 bit. 16 GB ram, 260GB SSD. (SQL Server LOVES all that ram).