TFS MSSCCI Provider Beta 2 is available -- disable strong name validation
As has been announced in several different blogs, the second beta of the MSSCCI provider is available, providing VS integration for users with VS 2003 and earlier (you cannot use it with VS 2005, because we provide the full experience with Team Explorer in VS 2005).
For it to work, you will need to disable strong name validation for the beta 2 assemblies. They are not strongly named (signed) binaries.
If you do not disable strong name validation, you will receive two error messages.
TFMscciSvr.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
There was a failure while initializing the Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider source control provider. You cannot use this provider to perform source control operations.
You can use the following to disable strong name validation for these assemblies, without disabling strong name validation for everything.
Save the following text into a file called disable.reg and then type disable.reg in a Windows console command prompt to run it.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\StrongName\Verification\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Msscci,B03F5F7F11D50A3A]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\StrongName\Verification\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.VersionControl.Controls,B03F5F7F11D50A3A]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\StrongName\Verification\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Controls,B03F5F7F11D50A3A]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\StrongName\Verification\Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking,B03F5F7F11D50A3A]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\StrongName\Verification\TFMscciGui,B03F5F7F11D50A3A]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\StrongName\Verification\TFMscciSvr,B03F5F7F11D50A3A]
I have also included that as an attachment to this post, but I have called disable.txt so that your browser will allow you to download it. When you save the file, you'll need to rename it to disable.reg.
Of course, running this file will modify your registry, so all of the usual caveats apply.
For those familiar with the sn command from the .NET SDK and VS installations, you can also use sn -Vr <assembly> to disable it, which is what I used to generate the registry settings. Running sn -Vr * will disable strong name validation for all assemblies, but that means no assemblies will be checked.
[UPDATE 2/21/06] I've updated the registry settings here and in the attached file to disable strong name signing validation only for the assemblies used by the MSSCCI provider.
