In SQL 2005 we have done quite a bit of internal improvements in tempdb scalability. These include: Caching of IAM and first data page for temp table and table variables. Improved allocation page latching protocol so that we use UP latch less...

This is really old, but some tips are still potentially useful: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/70/tips/storagen.mspx

Old article but still very useful: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;243586

Unless your workload changed significantly, shrink file is not going to help you because tempdb will just grow back if a query needs that amount of free space. So a better way is to identify the query and try to optimize that, maybe by adding an index...

Click the following link to learn things like: TOP, RANK, ROW_NUMBER, PIVOT, Recursion... http://www.awprofessional.com/articles/article.asp?p=327394&seqNum=7&rl=1