DaveZ's TFS Tome

Must-have Links

While Google Searches can help, there is still something in knowing where some primary sources are.  This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it’s a start which is better than “not-a-start” (my anti-pattern of a successful blog):

Where to Start:

• If you’ve got a question, you go here first: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=5&SiteID=1
• Then here of course: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181232.aspx
• Official Known Issues: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/teamsystem/tfsknownissues.aspx

Blogs:

• Key team system guy at Microsoft  http://blogs.msdn.com/robcaron/default.aspx
• Nice, mature blog/forum site  http://teamsystemrocks.com/
• You gotta like the name, and he has been a very reliable, dedicated inside source from Microsoft on the nitty gritty of what works and what doesn’t. http://blogs.msdn.com/buckh/default.aspx
• Nice tips & tricks:  http://blogs.vertigosoftware.com/teamsystem/default.aspx:
• MSBuild: http://blogs.msdn.com/msbuild/

Helpful MVPs:

• Marcel de Vries:  http://blogs.infosupport.com/marcelv/default.aspx
• Martin Woodward: http://www.woodwardweb.com
• Mickey Gouseet: http://teamsystemrocks.com/blogs/mickey_gousset/default.aspx

Must have Utilities:

• TFS PowerToys (Now with many features seamlessly integrated into the IDE): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3F21144A-4E98-4CE0-830F-D1F3E8AC9D67&displaylang=en
• These guys did us all a big favor in filling in some of the GUI wholes of the 1.0 product

http://www.attrice.info/downloads/index.htm.  My order of usefulness:

1.      This bundle is a must: http://www.attrice.info/cm/tfs/index.htm

2.      This is useful for exploring the endless rabbit hole of MSBuild imports http://www.attrice.info/msbuild/index.htm

3.      Others, optional. 

• You can get used to editing the XML after a while, and sometimes you still have to, but here’s a great graphical UI for it, and the layout tab saves hours!: http://www.gotdotnet.com/workspaces/workspace.aspx?id=812a68af-5e74-48c6-9623-1a4469142a84
• SDK Downloads – Used to be critical for TFS powertoys as well , but Microsoft has moved away from this as the primary distribution channel for these utilities: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/extend/
• Admin Tool: I’ve had issues with this tool, but I would feel remiss if I didn’t mention it because some of had more success than me: http://www.gotdotnet.com/codegallery/codegallery.aspx?id=cea30722-cd0a-4ef4-9c75-a5a5e4932b05&newsId=a3f8afe1-9920-43f5-8814-3122d5ec2a90

MsBuild

• The overview: http://windowssdk.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms171452(VS.80).aspx
• (Don’t write your own custom tasks until you’ve perused these:
• Out-of-the-box task reference: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/7z253716.aspx
• Additional Open Source Tasks from Microsoft UK: http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/UserSamples/Details.aspx?SampleGuid=2cb20e79-d706-4706-9ea0-26188257ee7d
• Tigris Open Source MSBuild tasks: http://msbuildtasks.tigris.org/
• And, the always popular: “Keep assembly info versioning/info in synch task” (and nice mock build engine for testing.) http://www.gotdotnet.com/codegallery/codegallery.aspx?id=93d23e13-c653-4815-9e79-16107919f93e 

Version Control

• Gotta start somewhere: http://blogs.msdn.com/mrod/default.aspx

• Specifying ultimate merge tools for comparisons: http://blogs.msdn.com/jmanning/articles/535573.aspx