Error: The type or name ‘components’ does not exist in the namespace “Microsoft.Web’

He is able to successfully run the samples, or are all Atlas apps failing? This would help determining whether this is a case of a bad install, or an issue with the specific app he is trying.

If it's the specific app, can you post more details about what it looks like?

I had this same problem, it turned out to be incorrect settings in web.config. Check this section in particular:

<pages>
<controls>
<add namespace="Microsoft.Web.UI" assembly="Microsoft.Web.Atlas" tagPrefix="atlas"/>
<add namespace="Microsoft.Web.UI.Controls" assembly="Microsoft.Web.Atlas" tagPrefix="atlas"/>
</controls>
</pages>

If not there then check the rest, but I know it was a problem with web.config for me.