Archive for March, 2011
Visual Studio and TFS 2010 Service Pack 1, Feature Packs and Power Tools Downloads
VS/TFS 2010 SP1 has just been released! SP1 rolls up most of the post RTM hotfixes and updates but it does not include Feature Packs and some other updates.
Here’s a list of the current stack of tools and patches that should be applied to a new Visual Studio/TFS 2010 environment:
- Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1
- TFS 2010 Service Pack 1
- Expression Encoder
- Visual Studio Feature Pack 2. This feature pack contains new tooling around testing and also includes the Architecture and Modeling Feature Pack. Currently only available from MSDN downloads.
- Project Server Integration Feature Pack. Also only available from MSDN downloads.
- TFS Power Tools, March 2011 release
- Team Foundation Build Extensions
- TFS 2010 MSSCCI Provider
- Visual Studio 2010 Productivity Tools
- Visual Studio Code Metrics Power Tools
- Team Explorer Everywhere SP1. Again only available from MSDN downloads.
See Brian Harry’s detailed post on what should be installed where.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive list of what’s in SP1 look at Brian’s Visual Studio SP1 announcement post.
Team Foundation Server Power Tools March 2011 Release
The TFS team just released an updated version of the essential TFS power tools. In this version I think the following are the most important additions:
- Improved feature-set in the Windows Shell Extension. Workspace management, history search and the option to do Shelving from the shell are all welcome features.
- TFS Build Power Tools. Stating with this release Microsoft will start sharing parts of their internal tools around build management. I had the opportunity to see some demos of the coming features at the MVP summit last week and I can’t wait to get more of those in the package! For now we have to settle with a command-line version of the Clone Build definition feature introduced in an earlier TFPT release (see this post on how that feature works: http://msmvps.com/blogs/molausson/archive/2010/10/21/clone-a-build-definition.aspx)
This update also resolves a number of issues with the TFS Backup/Restore tool that came with the previous release. Based on what I’ve heard the tool is ready for use now!
Brian Harrys has written more about this release here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bharry/archive/2011/03/03/mar-11-team-foundation-server-power-tools-are-available.aspx
You can get the latest TFS Power Tools from the Visual Studio 2010 Extension Manager or directly from this link: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/c255a1e4-04ba-4f68-8f4e-cd473d6b971f