Often times you won't need to interrogate the dropdown list. You may be able to use methods like SelectItemByText. But I understand that sometimes you do need to interrogate the dropdown - the difficulty is getting the dropdown to stay open.

What I do is open the dropdown list with a method from the Test Methods. Then the dropdown will sometimes stay open and let you interrogate it. You might do something like this:

1. Open Test Methods on the control that would open the dropdown list
2. Invoke PerformClick (or whatever method opens the dropdown)
3. Close test methods
4. drag bulls-eye to interrogate the control
5. (if step 4 doesn't work) you can also try finding the control in one of the interrogation tabs (Web Controls, Virtual Controls, Windows) and creating the control from there.

Let me know if this works for you!