21 October 2011

Visual Studio 2010 GDR

A new update has been released for Visual Studio 2010 (client only) called the “Visual Studio 2010 SP1 TFS Compatibility GDR”.  There are several fixes and improvements in this update, including (as taken from Brian Harry’s blog post):

  • The update gets its name from the fact that it includes changes necessary to the Visual Studio 2010 client to allow it to work with a TFS 11 server – including the Team Foundation Service Preview (a.k.a. TFS on Windows Azure).
  • The biggest “news” is the addition of support for multi-line test steps in Microsoft Test Manager.  It’s mentioned in the #1 suggestion for Visual Studio Test and Lab Management.
  • KB2522890 – Team Explorer Crashes when opening build from TFS 2008.
  • KB2552300 - Gated Check-ins fail with the “Preserve local Changes” option.
  • KB2561827 – Diff/Merge closes with unhandled exception when comparing two files.

Pre-requisite: Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 must be installed prior to installing this update.

Download: This update can be downloaded here.

Once the update has been installed, the version for DevEnv.exe should be 10.0.40219.1.

07 October 2011

Team Foundation Service Preview Code

One of the many new features in Visual Studio/TFS 11 that I demonstrated today at Tulsa TechFest included the new Team Foundation Service (a.k.a. TFS for Azure).  This is the new cloud-based Team Foundation Server service provided by Microsoft (currently in a developer preview/non-beta state).  You can read more about the new TF Service on Brian Harry’s blog here.

Microsoft has made the TF Service available for use on a limited basis - e.g. they handed out invitation codes at the //Build/ conference several weeks ago and have blogged a few invitation codes.  The down side is that each code has a limited number of activations so unless you were quick to sign up you may have missed out on the chance to check out the preview.

To help at least a few people out (25 to be exact), Microsoft has provided me with an activation code (see below) to publish during today’s “What’s New in Visual Studio 11” session.  For those of you attending this session at this year’s Tulsa TechFest, you are seeing me publish this post live, which means you will have first dibs on making use of the invitation code.  For everyone else, it’s all first-come, first-serve.  The first 25 activations win!

The Specifics…

This invitation code is your opportunity to claim your own Visual Studio Team Foundation Service Preview account!

This account is for you to experience the Team Foundation Service Preview before it is publicly available. You can use this account to manage your software development projects and to store your source code, work items and bugs in Team Foundation Server hosted on the Windows Azure platform. You can also invite friends, colleagues and team members to join your account to collaborate on your projects.

Your invitation code is: tulsatf

To claim your account please visit http://tfspreview.com register with your Windows LiveID and enter your invitation code to claim your free account.

Please note that there are a limited number of these complimentary accounts and they will be assigned on a first come, first served basis. Register today to secure your account!

* Invitation must be redeemed by: 10/06/2012

* Please note that once the Team Foundation Service reaches commercial availability, if you want to continue your service, you may be required to start paying for this account or it will expire at the end of the trial period.