26 Apr 2012

Team Foundation Service Status

Team Foundation Service
If you are a regular user of the “preview” version of Microsoft’s new Team Foundation Service – a.k.a. “TFSPreview”, then you’re probably aware that the service is currently down for maintenance.  This maintenance outage may have come as a surprise to many of you (it did to me) because there is currently no built-in mechanism to notify users of planned outages.  I would suspect that something will be added in the future to ease this pain.  However, in the meantime, here are a few tips that I have seen over the past hour that you can use now to help…
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12 Apr 2012

Team Foundation Service Whitepaper in Beta

ALM Rangers, TFS, Visual Studio 2012
The Visual Studio ALM Rangers have shipped another deliverable as part of the ALM Rangers Visual Studio 11 Readiness “Gig” Project – the Team Foundation Service Preview whitepaper. If you have been following the various developments of Visual Studio 11 and Team Foundation Server 11 then you are already aware that Microsoft now offers a cloud-based solution for TFS – currently referred to as the Team Foundation Service Preview.  Many of the features that are currently available in the “on-premises” version of TFS are also available in the cloud-based version (conversely, there are also some features in the cloud-based version…
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05 Apr 2012

TFS 11 Power Tools Beta Released

TFS, Visual Studio 2012
A beta release of the TFS 11 Power Tools has been released.  This release can run side-by-side with the TFS 2010 Power Tools (with some caveats – see below). The features included with this release are: TFS 11 Power Tools Team Foundation Power Tool Command Line (tfpt.exe) Team Explorer Enhancements Windows Shell Extensions (*note: depending on which versions of the TFS Power Tools you install (e.g. TFS 2010 or TFS 11 Beta) the last one installed wins – i.e. you can’t have Windows Shell Extensions for both versions) Process Template Editor Test Attachment Cleaner Best Practices Analyzer TFS PowerShell Commands…
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09 Mar 2012

Team Explorer Everywhere (and more) Now Free!

TFS
Visual Studio 2010 Team Explorer Everywhere is Microsoft’s Team Explorer client for Eclipse-based environments.  Here is the official description: Visual Studio Team Explorer Everywhere 2010 helps .NET and Java development teams collaborate across platforms. It provides the tools and plug-ins you need to access Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 from within Eclipse-based environments, so everyone can work together to achieve business goals. Up until yesterday, Team Explorer Everywhere was sold as a separate product.  It is now available as a free download.  Keep in mind that although Team Explorer Everywhere is now free, you will still need a Team…
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02 Mar 2012

Visual Studio 11 ALM Beta ALM Rangers Guides

ALM Rangers, Guidance
As we are mostly all aware, Microsoft released Visual Studio 11 Beta and Team Foundation Server 11 Beta yesterday morning (see links here).  What you might not realize is that the ALM Rangers released their initial wave of Visual Studio 11 ALM Readiness Guides. The initial wave includes the release of 10 guides to Microsoft’s CodePlex site: Practical Kanban Guide Practical Ruck Guide Team Foundation Build Customization Guide Team Foundation Server Planning Guide Team Foundation Server Upgrade Guide Test Release Management Guide Visual Studio ALM Rangers Personas and Scenarios Visual Studio Architecture Tooling Guide Visual Studio Lab Management Guide VM Factory…
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02 Mar 2012

Windows 8 Beta and Visual Studio 11 Beta Quick Links

TFS, Visual Studio 2012, Windows 8
If you haven't yet downloaded the Windows 8 Beta or Visual Studio 11 Beta, a list of links are provided below for convenience.  If there is anything missing (from the February 29th beta wave release), please leave a comment below and we'll get it added to the list. Windows 8 Windows 8 Consumer Preview Windows 8 Server Beta - must register to download Visual Studio 11 Beta Download - this link works for the following product downloads: .NET .NET Framework 4.5 Beta Visual Studio Visual Studio 11 Ultimate Beta Visual Studio 11 Premium Beta Visual Studio 11 Professional Beta Visual…
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28 Feb 2012

Useful Tools from MVP2MVP Day

Conferences, Utilities
Although the 2012 MVP Global Summit officially kicks off tomorrow, there were still plenty of Microsoft MVPs around today for various pre-sessions.  In my case, I joined the other Visual Studio ALM MVPs present for this year’s MVP2MVP day – a day where Visual Studio ALM MVPs are given 20 minutes to get up and present on various tips, tricks, neat projects, etc. to the rest of the group with the goal of sharing knowledge and learning new things.  There was a lot of useful information at this year’s MVP2MVP day so I thought I’d share a few of the tools…
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24 Feb 2012

Comparing Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Studio 11 Beta Editions

Visual Studio 2012
Yesterday, Microsoft announced that the Visual Studio 11 Beta would be available on February 29th.  I expect there to be a lot of information coming out over the next few weeks (and months) covering the various features in the updated tools. If you are curious about what’s included in each of the Visual Studio 11 beta editions, then take a look at the Visual Studio 11 Features Chart provided by Microsoft: If you would like to compare the above features with Visual Studio 2010, then check out the Visual Studio 2010 Comparison chart: The following list summarizes most of the…
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23 Feb 2012

Visual Studio/TFS 11 Beta Coming Next Week

TFS, Visual Studio 2012
It has been roughly five months since Microsoft released a Developer Preview version of Visual Studio 11 along with the Developer Preview of Windows 8.  Today, Microsoft has announced that they will be releasing the beta version of Visual Studio 11, as well as the .NET Framework 4.5, next week on February 29th (the same day the Windows 8 Consumer Preview – a.k.a. beta is to be released). Some of the quick highlights include: TFS Express.  With the release of TFS 11, there will be a new “TFS Express” SKU that will be free for 1 to 5 users.  TFS…
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19 Jan 2012

Visual Studio Achievements–Nice Idea, But…

Visual Studio
Today, on The Official Microsoft Blog, Karsten (of Channel 9) posted about achievements being brought to Visual Studio.  Visual Studio Achievements (beta) is a Visual Studio add-in enabling developers to unlock various badges as they do what they do everyday – write code in Visual Studio.  There are currently 32 achievements, across six categories, waiting to be unlocked.  The categories include:Customizing Visual StudioDon’t Try This At HomeGood HousekeepingJust For FunPower CoderUnleashing Visual StudioYou can read the full list of achievements here.As you unlock various achievements, you will earn points and your progress will be tracked the Channel 9 achievements leaderboard…
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