TFS Windows Explorer Integration - Getting version history outside of VS - visual-studio-2013

I worked for year using CVS source control with Windows Explorer integration using TortoiseCVS which enabled me to view the history of my files in a graphical way and allow me to compare any 2 versions of the file without the need to open IDEs.
Lately I started working in a new place that uses TFS which require me to open Visual Studio every time I want to see the file history.
It would be great to have this level of integration between TFS and Windows Explorer. I wonder if any third party has developed such functionality?
Currently I use C# with Visual Studio 2013.
This is what I see when I choose Revision Graph:

Shell integration can be installed as part of the Visual Studio Power Tools for Team Foundation Server 2013. Make sure you check the "Windows Shell Extensions" option.
To see the revision graph, I am afraid you still need to open Visual Studio and use the Track Changeset feature which seems the closest as far as I can tell.
That and the "Incoming Changes" codelens that was added to Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate and which is going to be part of Visual Studio 2015 Professional and up.

Related

Team Foundation Server Power Tools for Visual Studio 2019

We use Team Foundation Version Control(TFVC) on on-prem TFS server. For quite a while it was possible to use TFS Power Tools (tfpt tool) from Visual Studio Developer Command Prompt. Lately we moved to VS 2019. Problem is that we can't find any proper TFS Power Tools for VS 2019. For example to do undo checkout of unmodified files.
Does anyone had similar problem not being able to use tftp tools from VS 2019?
Does anyone had similar problem not being able to use tftp tools from VS 2019?
Sorry for any inconvenience.
This is a know issue about Visual Studio 2019. The Team Foundation Server Power Tools currently only updated to TFS2017, TFS2019 is not yet available.
Besides, Power tool has been renamed TFS Process Template Editor: TFS Process Template Editor
Edit: As of 10/16/2020 there is a TFS Template Editor for Visual Studio 2019
MS engineers are trying to develop it and will release it so that you can use it as soon as possible.
If you want to modify the work items, you can modify the work items by referring to the following documents:
Import, export, and manage work item types
Hope this helps.
For undoing unmodified files changes you can use this extension https://stackoverflow.com/a/52839174/6300406

Why won't the "Configure Continuous Delivery" option appear?

I'm trying to set up continuous deployment in Visual Studio 2017 and got stuck on step one. I installed the Continuous Delivery Tools for Visual Studio. It appears under the Installed list in Extensions and Updates, and it has a Disable button next to it, so I assume it is enabled. From everything I've read, there's supposed to be an option labeled "Configure Continuous Delivery" when I right-click the project. Nothing new appears for me. I've tried restarting Visual Studio and rebooting my computer.
I thought that maybe it wasn't supported because it wasn't a .NET Core application, or because I'm using TFS and not VSTS. So I created a new .NET Core web application and pushed it to VSTS, and still do not have any new menu options on the project. For both projects, the repo is Git.
Which version of Visual Studio do you use? The extension Continuous Delivery Tools for Visual Studio only supports Visual Studio 2017 for now.
I tested the extension with VS 2017 (Microsoft Visual Studio Enterprise 2017 Version 15.4.4). Then option "Configure Continuous Delivery to Azure" displayed there as expected.
Please note that, you need to right click on the Solution but not the project.
Reference this article : TFVC support and other enhancements hit Continuous Delivery Tools for Visual Studio

Can I use Visual Studio Community 2015 without .NET?

I'm looking for a new html/jquery/css IDE to edit and publish existing websites. Can I use Visual Studio Community 2015 to edit a website that doesn't use .NET and publish it to a server using ftp?
Yes you can use Visual Studio as your main editor. Select any ASP.NET project as your starting point, delete everything in the project and you're good to go. You can add a Publish Profile to enable web deployment (which supports FTP).
It will require the concept of a "Project File" for most features to work well. There is the old Web Site project which just works on any folder, but that hasn't seen much love in the past years. It's new cousin is being introduced with Visual Studio 15 (which will likely be Visual Studio 2016 or 2017).
As an alternative you may want to look at Visual Studio Code as well, it's the light weight cousin of Visual Studio Community Edition and is suited perfectly for the kind of work you're planning it seems.

Can you install a standalone TFS client that doesn't need Visual Studio?

Is it possible to get a standalone TFS client on a server that does NOT have Visual Studio installed? We'd like a way to "reach into" a TFS project from a server, without having to install Visual Studio?
Possible? I've seen Team Explorer, but will that work without Visual Studio?
Team Explorer 2008 will allow you to connect to TFS, but it will install a Visual Studio shell.
Team Explorer Everywhere has Web access. Martin Woodward wrote a great article about it.
Download the TFS power tools. The "Windows Shell Extension" component allows one to perform most operations with TFS via Windows Explorer. Note that the Power Tools installer states that Visual Studio 2010 (or Visual Studio Team Explorer 2010) is a prerequisite for the following features:
Command-line interface
Visual Studio Integration
Check-in Policy Pack
Process Editor
Windows Shell Extension
PowerShell Cmdlets
It's 2017 and Microsoft (re)introduced the standalone Team Explorer.
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/visualstudioalm/2017/04/05/reintroducing-the-team-explorer-standalone-installer/
If you remember back to 2013 (and before), we released standalone installers for Team Explorer. In VS 2015, we did not release a standalone Team Explorer since customers had free options with Express SKUs and Community, which included Team Explorer functionality.
Customers have continued to request a standalone installer for Team Explorer for non-developers, however. And so today, with the Visual Studio 2017 Update release, the standalone Team Explorer installer is back.
Download - https://www.visualstudio.com/thank-you-downloading-visual-studio/?sku=TeamExplorer&rel=15
Included with Team Foundation Server there is a free web front end called "TFS Web Access". In TFS 2008, the Web Access was a different installation and it came as a Power Tool to the TFS. In TFS 2010, the Web Access is installed automatically and is part of the TFS.
In order to get to the Web Access in TFS 2010 do the following:
In your preferred browser type:
http://[YourServerName]:8080/tfs/web/
YourServerName is the tfs name for example: http://tfs-srv:8080/tfs/web/
Also, if you need Agile planning and a Task Board with TFS Web Access, take a look at Urban Turtle - http://urbanturtle.com. According to Microsoft, this is the premier Scrum tooling for TFS.
Discloser: I work with the Urban Turtle team. So do not take my words. Instead, read what Microsoft blogs said about Urban Turtle.
http://blogs.msdn.com/search/SearchResults.aspx?q=urban%20turtle&sections=3652.
There now seems to be a more generic Team Explorer Everywhere for TFS - perhaps that will give us non-VS users desktop access to TFS :)
It includes an Eclipse plug-in and usefully, a command line client.
While it appears to be a dead project. If you like having version control outside an IDE (or independant of the IDE). There is SVN Bridge, which allows you to use TortoiseSVN to talk to your TFS server.
https://svnbridge.codeplex.com/
You can install Team Explorer (on the TFS install DVD, or you can download it from MSDN) without needing to have VS2010 installed - Team Explorer will install a 'shell' VS2010 with only the TFS features available - none of the IDE components.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=fe4f9904-0480-4c9d-a264-02fedd78ab38

Can i use Team Explorer 2010 with Visual Studio 2008?

I think the title is very clear, but also i want to say why:
I already downloaded TFS 2010 and Team explorer 2010, but i'm still using VS2008 (with no short-time plans to change)
My question, can i use those toghether?
Also, my VS is just the professional version. I don't want to download the TE2008 because for my internet conection, it is just too big.
Thanks in advance
The 2010 client is backwards compatible with 2008 servers (though not 2005). Details: http://blogs.msdn.com/teams_wit_tools/archive/2009/10/19/compatibility-matrix-for-2010-beta-2-team-foundation-server-to-team-explorer-2008-and-2005.aspx
However, it will not integrate inside the VS2008 shell. If you want full source control integration you'll need to download TE2008 + SP1.

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