I'm not sure if that's the right place to ask this question, but I'll give it a try...

With VS2008 I use MS Visual Source Safe.
Whenever I get latest version on a project it takes a while, but I can't really tell whether it's just checking the files or updating them.
Is there a way to display somewhere the list of files that have been modified and updated since last update?

I used to use Subversion before and got used to this feature.

This can be easily acheived using the SourceSafe stand alone client (not within Visual Studio).

You can compare full hierarchy of directories (called projects in source safe) and only files differing (wherever they are) will be reported. Then within the same interface you can:

• review differences in each of reported files (one by one)
• check-in / check-out
• get changes

Yes, but is there a way to see the list of files that were updated/added from inside VS right after getting latest version of the project?

Yes source safe client does a log of updates...

Why don't you give it a try? It is pretty light weight and easy to install.

If you don't want a source safe server component, you still can use a local source safe database for your tests.

It is pretty stable; it pretty much didn't change is the past 15 years...

You can view these updating information in the Output window in Visual Studio. To enable the Output window, you can click View -> Output.

Catherine Sea