21 Apr 2010

Visual Studio 2010/TFS 2010 Utility Roundup

TFS, Utilities, Visual Studio 2010
Well, Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010 have been “in the wild” for a little over a week now.  Now that the RTM versions have had a few days to settle in, I decided to do a quick survey of some of my favorite utilities to see if they have been updated to support the final release of Visual Studio 2010 and TFS 2010.  Here is the list: GhostDoc (v2.5.09166) – this is a great add-in for Visual Studio to help with the mundane task of providing XML documentation for your code.  After using this utility for even…
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12 Apr 2010

Visual Studio 2010 Launches/RTMs!

Visual Studio, Visual Studio 2010
After months (years?) of anticipation, Visual Studio 2010 has finally launched/RTM’d!  If you are a MSDN subscriber, you can download the full version from the MSDN Subscribers site.  The trial editions should be available on the Microsoft Downloads site soon. There are far too many new features in Visual Studio 2010 to be listed here.  However, here are a few links to get you started…     Visual Studio 2010 Home Page Compare Visual Studio 2010 Product Features Visual Studio 2010 Documentation Visual Studio 2010 Application Lifecycle Management What’s New in Visual Studio 2010 Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework…
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16 Mar 2010

Team Explorer 2005 Update for TFS 2010 is Available

Team System, TFS, Visual Studio, Visual Studio 2010
If you are using Visual Studio 2005 (along with Team Explorer 2005) to access Team Foundation Server, an update patch has been released that will allow Team Explorer 2005 to communicate with Team Foundation Server 2010. In general, after installing the update patch, you will be able to use Visual Studio 2005 to access legacy (2005) TFS servers as well as TFS 2010 servers.  If you switch to a TFS 2010 server, you will be able to continue using the basic functionality of TFS but will not be able to utilize new TFS 2010 features (e.g. Branch Visualization, creating new…
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12 Mar 2010

Save on Visual Studio 2010 Professional and Pre-Order Now

Visual Studio, Visual Studio 2010
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional will launch on April 12 but you can beat the rush and secure your copy today by pre-ordering at the affordable estimated retail price of $549, a saving of $250. If you use a previous version of Visual Studio or any other development tool then you are eligible for this upgrade. Along with all the great new features in Visual Studio 2010 (see www.microsoft.com/visualstudio) Visual Studio 2010 Professional includes a 12-month MSDN Essentials subscription which gives you access to core Microsoft platforms: Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, and Microsoft SQL Server 2008…
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02 Mar 2010

Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Installation Failure

TFS, Visual Studio, Visual Studio 2010
If you attempt to install the .NET Framework 4 (RC – not sure yet if this will be an issue at RTM) or Visual Studio 2010/Team Foundation Server 2010 RC (which will install the .NET Framework 4 as a dependency) and the Windows Update service is not running, the install will fail. When installing Team Foundation Server 2010 without the Windows Update service running, then you may see a dialog like this one (assuming you don’t already have the .NET Framework 4 installed):   If you’re installing only the .NET Framework 4 without the Windows Update service running, then you…
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26 Feb 2010

Ten Features in Visual Studio 2010 You May Not Know About

Tips, Visual Studio, Visual Studio 2010
There are a LOT of new features coming in Visual Studio 2010.  Some of them are very big features (e.g. IntelliTrace, Microsoft Test Manager, etc.).  However, there are lots of smaller features that, even though small, are great additions to Visual Studio. It would take a lot of time and space to list each and every new feature in Visual Studio 2010 so I’ve picked ten new features that I personally find interesting and outlined them below: Removing Recent Items – If you make use of the Recently Used List (RUL) in Visual Studio, then you’ve no doubt had items…
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24 Feb 2010

Visual Studio Lab Management 2010 Update

Visual Studio
A short while ago pricing details were released for Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010.  We just got an update for Visual Studio Lab Management 2010 regarding shipping plans and pricing.  Here are the details: What is Visual Studio Lab Management 2010? Visual Studio Lab Management 2010 is a new offering in the Visual Studio 2010 release wave. Lab Management 2010 enables teams to configure and manage a virtual lab environment. Lab Management works with System Center Virtual Machine Manager for enabling teams to create environment templates, provision ring-fenced environments, and checkpoint those environments. Using Lab Management, you…
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24 Feb 2010

Team Foundation Server Power Tools for TFS 2010 RC

TFS, Visual Studio 2010
If you’ve been trying out Team Foundation Server 2010 RC then you’ll be pleased to know that the Team Foundation Server Power Tools have been released for TFS 2010 RC.  This release contains mostly fixes and compatibility improvements for the RC.  The Team Members Power Tool is now functional as well – although if you’re not signed into Windows Communicator, it will display a dialog box alerting you that you’re not logged in (a minor annoyance). You can download the TFS Power Tools 2010 RC on the Visual Studio Gallery - here.  If you’ve installed the beta version of the…
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12 Feb 2010

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit

Training, Visual Studio 2010
The Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit has been updated for the recent Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate.  There is a lot of great content in this update including the following technologies: C# 4.0 Visual Basic 10 F# Parallel Extensions Windows Communication Foundation Windows Workflow Windows Presentation Foundation ASP.NET 4 Windows 7 Entity Framework ADO.NET Data Services Managed Extensibility Framework Visual Studio Team System (note that the “Team System” name has been dropped from Visual Studio 2010 – this will no doubt be reflected in the final release of the training kit) The download is about 200MB…
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10 Feb 2010

Visual Studio 2010 Licensing

TFS, Visual Studio, Visual Studio 2010
We’ve seen the prices for Visual Studio 2010 but what about licensing?  If you’re interested in the finer details of how Visual Studio 2010 is licensed, then check out the Visual Studio 2010 Licensing Whitepaper (available in PDF and XPS formats). This is a 33-page document covering the following areas of Visual Studio 2010: How to Buy Visual Studio 2010 Client Edition and MSDN Subscription Licensing Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 Licensing Lab Management Load Testing IntelliTrace I wish it didn’t take 33 pages to explain product licensing but at least there’s a document :-)
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