I've heard a few questions and comments about our permission model recently. For example, some folks have asked why user in two groups, one granted a permission and one denied the same permission, is denied the permission rather than granted it. The answer lies in our permissioning model. Lets first...

A few folks on the forums have asked how they can specify other editors to open files in Team Foundation version control. In particular, Acrobat PDF files have come up a few times . When investigating the issue, I discovered a workaround that I thought might be of general interest. To open a single...

As I depart the Version Control team, I'd like to make one final note about a particular request we've heard often. Many folks want us to get the latest version of a file when they check it out for editing. On the surface, this does seem like a good idea. However, I'll try to explain here why you don...

I'm sure many of you have read Eric Sink 's " Four Questions ". If you haven't though, I highly recommend it. [Thanks due to Martin Woodward for linking to the post!] Now that we've shipped version one of Team Foundation Server, we've started getting a lot more feedback. It's great to see that so...

Silly though it may be, have you heard that James Manning posted that Buck Hodges posted about Rob Caron talking about Rick LaPlante's public announcement at SD West that Team Foundation Server ships tomorrow ? On behalf of the Version Control QA Team, I'd like to offer a hearty: SHIP IT!

Perhaps you've heard of them . Files in NTFS may have multiple "Alternate Data Streams" (ADS), each with its own contents. It's an interesting concept, certainly, but one that requires all software written for NTFS to buy into it, which is always risky. For example, lets say we try: C:\> echo...

Jeff Maxton recently pointed out an issue with Team Foundation and the Windows folder "encrypt contents" option. Briefly, the problem is this. Suppose you want to encrypt your working folders for your Team Foundation workspace. Theoretically, you should just be able to select "Advanced..." on the...

For the past few weeks, we've been running our Full Automation Run (FAR) against several dozen different Team Foundation Server configurations. We've tested everything from Workgroups to VPCs, Chinese to Turkish, IPv6 to 64bit machines. We reverently call the spreadsheet of test configurations "The Matrix...

After a bit of revising and internal processing, I'm the proud author of two TechNotes ! Both are topics I've posted here before, but if you'd like to see them in their next stage of evolution, here they are: TN_1700: Which Team Foundation commands need to be checked in? TN_1701: How do Team Foundation...

James ' post on the DateTime versionspec reminded me that I wanted to post a brief summary of versionspecs in Visual Studio Team Foundation's Version Control. There are 5 different flavors of version specifications, each with its own syntax. Their one letter identifiers from the command line are ...

Over the past few weeks, I've set up several Visual Studio Team Foundation Servers. Granted, this is something I've done a few dozen times since I first arrived, but I feel like I'm starting to get this down to a science. In any case, I wanted to post my own personal 12 steps to getting a combined ATDT...

Locks vs. Permissions Visual Studio's Team Foundation Version Control has a very powerful access control model, permitting administrators to grant groups and individuals only the specific capabilities they need to do get the job done. Team Foundation provides two ways to control the abilities of...

According to Wikipedia , there are over 800,000 species of insect, only 82,000 of which are " true bugs ". The same sort of thing can be said about work items in Visual Studio Team System if you drop a few orders of magnitude. Here's a quick note on the evolution of work items within our dogfood system...

We're testing the Japanese Beta3 version of Visual Studio Team System's Team Foundation Server. Of course, most of us don't actually know any Japanese, so we have to rely on computer translators to help us figure out what's going on. Not all of the translations come through as clearly as others, though...

As Chris says, we're very near the Beta 3 ship and the "ship it!" mantra is strong. We've done some pretty crazy testing during this test pass, including some of my current favorites- intentionally self-induced network connectivity issues, full disks, stopped services, misconfigured firewalls, and all...

Recently, Keith Hill asked which version control commands require a checkin to complete. As Keith, Ed, and I delved into the topic, I realized this might be of broader general interest, too. Thanks to James for the assist on this one! As many of you know, Team Foundation's Version Control system uses...

To misquote Kermit the Frog, "Time's fun when you're catching flies and other bugs." It's been awhile, I suppose, but we've been busy writing new automated tests, verifying fixes, and generally Making Things Work (tm). In any case, something came to mind recently that I wanted to pass along. As I...

I've just heard that there's a chat in a little under three hours on " Learning Visual Studio Team System ". It should be a great opportunity to learn what's currently available as well as let us know what you'd like to see in Team System. Of course, there are always the forums and blogs, but real-time...

Every now and again, some feature or other of our source control code strikes me in a "wow, that's smart" sort of way. For example, one feature of our "changeset" command I didn't know until fairly recently is the "/latest" option. If you don't know what the most recent changeset number is but want to...

A little bit back, Keith Hill posted in the TFS Forum about seeing "..." in Source Control Explorer's "Pending Change" and "User" columns. Why does this happen? What does it mean? Where can you find the missing information? Do you have to learn Morse code to use source control? Fear not, dear readers...

Now that you've had a bit of time to play around with Beta 2, I'm curious what people think of the mapping and cloaking funcitonality of Team Foundation source control. Do you set up multiple maps? Have you cloaked anything? How do you think the average user will set up working folders for their workspace...

We've been getting some feedback that the " workspace " concept isn't entirely clear. In my post on baselines , I briefly mentioned the concept of workspaces and would like to write a bit more on the subject to clear up any questions. If a system user wants to interact with items stored in team foundation...

James introduced me to a neat trick recently with working folders. Oftentimes, I create a workspace and only want to map one team project to the local workspace root. Of course, I could use the UI, but that's not scriptable from a command file . I could also explicitly unmap the root and then remap....

Bruce from GrapeCity Inc. asks: When reading something about version control I learn a term "baseline". But in TF version control, I did not find it but a new term "workspace". I feel the two terms have similar meanings. Is my understanding right or not? PS: The TF version control is much much better...

A follow-up question from my most recent post - How often do you think you'll want to edit the comments and checkin notes of previously submitted changesets? Will you use it? Do you want to be able to edit other parts of the changeset (note that work item links can be added via the work items in question...