17 Oct 2013

TFVC vs. TF-Git Survey Results

OneDrive, Surveys, TF-Git, TFS, TFVC
Several weeks ago I posted a survey asking for your thoughts about Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) vs. Git within Team Foundation Server/Service (TF-Git). With a total of 27 respondents, here are the results of the survey questions: Which version of Team Foundation Server are you using? I have to admit that I find it interesting that 45% of the respondents are using Team Foundation Service. It would be interesting to see if this statistic holds with a larger group of TFS customers. What is your primary version control repository? In this case, about 70% are using TFVC with the…
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17 Oct 2013

Team Rooms Extension for Visual Studio 2013

Add-ins & Extensions, Visual Studio 2013
With Team Foundation Server 2013 (and the related Team Foundation Service), Microsoft introduced Team Rooms. Team rooms allow you to collaborate across one or more projects (you can create as many team rooms as you like) using an interface similar to common chat software (e.g. Microsoft Communicator or Facebook chat). If you would like to dig into the details of Team Rooms, check out Mickey Gousset’s article in the September issue of Visual Studio Magazine, Team Foundation Server Team Rooms. Currently, if developers want to interact with other team members via Team Rooms, they must leave the Visual Studio IDE…
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17 Oct 2013

Windows 8.1 & Windows RT 8.1 Released

Windows 8.1
Microsoft released Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 today. This update, which applies to Windows 8 and Windows RT 8, is the first “major” release since the initial release about a year ago. What’s New? This update contains many enhancement and fixes. Some of the updates include: Start button. Although the Start button does exist in Windows 8, it is hidden by default until you move your mouse into the lower left corner, or swipe up from the bottom. In Windows 8.1, the Start button is shown by default. SkyDrive integration. With Windows 8.1, SkyDrive is deeply integrated into the…
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17 Oct 2013

Visual Studio 2013 RTM Available

TFS, Visual Studio 2013
Today, Microsoft released Visual Studio 2013 RTM (Release to Manufacturing), which includes Team Foundation Server 2013, for public availability.  The .NET Framework 4.5.1 is also included in this release. See what’s new in Visual Studio 2013 here. You can download Visual Studio 2013 now, from: Full Versions MSDN Subscribers – if you’re an MSDN subscriber then you can download the non-trial version now. Trial Versions – if you are not an MSDN subscriber, or simply want to install a trial version, you can download the trial products now.  Products available for download include: Visual Studio Ultimate 2013 Visual Studio Premium…
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08 Oct 2013

Keep Team Foundation Server Hummin’

TFS, Tips
Based on his experiences in the field, Grant Holliday has put together a great checklist of tasks to help you keep Team Foundation Server running smoothly.  The list is comprised of the following categories of tasks: The initial setup and provisioning of the hardware, operating system and SQL platform Regular OS system administrator tasks Regular SQL DBA tasks TFS-specific configurations Regular TFS administrator tasks To see the full checklist, read the post here.
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06 Oct 2013

Time for a Blog Makeover

General News
Since my first blog post nearly 8 years ago, I have been using blogspot.com as my one and only blogging engine. For the most part, it has served me very well. Although the web-based editor isn’t bad, I’ve always preferred to use Windows Live Writer as my authoring tool of choice. The drag-n-drop customization features within blogger.com made customizing my blog site a snap and there were more templates available than I could possibly ever need. All in all, I’ve not had much to complain about over the past several years of blogging. However, I have been having an issues…
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26 Sep 2013

TFVC vs. TF-Git – A Quick Survey

OneDrive, Surveys, TF-Git, TFS, TFVC
I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately about whether it would make sense for our application development teams to make the move to Team Foundation Git (TF-Git) as the primary version control choice within TFS. We are still using TFS 2010 as our primary TFS instance today although we have several projects in Team Foundation Service (TFService) as part of a pilot.  As we make preparations to move to TFS 2013 (we have not yet decided if we’ll host TFS 2013 on premises or if we’ll make exclusive use of the TFService) we are putting some thought into whether…
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24 Sep 2013

200GB Option for SkyDrive

OneDrive
If you’ve been waiting for the option to buy more than 100GB of storage on SkyDrive, your wait is over.  You can now buy an extra 200GB of storage space for $100/year. As you can see in the screenshot below, the space you purchase is added on to whatever you already have (in the Total Space column). The current price per GB is $0.50/year vs. ~$0.60 per GB/year for Google Drive.  Not a huge difference but a little less.  Though Google Drive makes up for part of this by providing the first 15GB free (vs. 7GB for SkyDrive). Also, if…
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20 Sep 2013

TFS 2013 Power Tools Released

TFS, Utilities, Visual Studio
As of today, you can download the just-released Team Foundation Server 2013 Power Tools (compatible with TFS 2013 RC). If you’re not familiar with the TFS Power Tools, and you spend any amount of time working with TFS on a day-to-day basis, I highly recommend you check these out.This release is comprised of four separate downloads:Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2013 Power Tools - this is a collection of multiple tools, including:Best Practices Analyzer (TFS application tier only)Check-in PoliciesProcess Template EditorStoryboard ShapesTeam Explorer EnhancementsTeam Foundation Power Tool Command Line (tfpt.exe)Test Attachment CleanerWindows PowerShell CmdletsWindows Shell ExtensionsWork Item TemplatesMicrosoft Visual…
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16 Sep 2013

Removing the Barrier to Entry for Windows Phone Development

Windows Phone
Until recently, if you wanted to develop for Windows Phone, and actually run your apps on your phone (as opposed to the emulator) you had to register for a $99 (USD) Windows Phone developer account.  This cost has always been a substantial barrier to entry for many would-be (Windows Phone) developers.  That is, until recently. Recently, two things have changed to make this much better. First, the $99 registration amount has been changed to $19 (annually).  This price is much more reasonable for most people (though free, it could be argued, would be even more reasonable :-).  The $19 price…
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